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Nice Image of a female worker in an aircraft plant


Championhilz
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brandon_rss18

I love these pictures, wish I could find some like this for my Air Corps collection. Your right, I love how women looked back then, very feminine. That was true beauty. ;)

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I love these pictures, wish I could find some like this for my Air Corps collection. Your right, I love how women looked back then, very feminine. That was true beauty. ;)

 

The "feminine" look in these photos is no accident.

 

If I recall correctly, a number of these were taken as part of "war information" campaign to convince Americans that it was okay for their wives and daughters to work in defense plants.

 

This may not seem like a big deal today, but the USA in 1940 was still ruled by traditional values that said a woman's place was in the home. There was a lot of social resistance to the idea of women working jobs traditionally held by men, especially in factories and shipyards.

 

If you want to get an idea of the attitudes and changes of the times, watch the movie Since You Went Away.

 

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Since_You_Went_Away".

 

The movie is a bit sentimental and propagandistic as well. But it does give you a flavor for how people looked at the subject of women workers, as well as other accomadations that had to be made during the war years.

 

Something else you may want to look at is David Brinkley's "Washington Goes to War". With a really wicked wit, the NBC veteran describes the trials and tribulations of the office girls that boarded trains all over the country to come fill the government's wartime bureaucracy.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Washington-Goes-War-...1747&sr=8-1

 

Interstingly, I believe there was less resistance to women filling men's roles in farming and agriculture. This is probably because women living on farms always participated in the work in one way or another. At age 14 my Mom was driving stripped down flatbed trucks through the orchards picking up bushels of picked apples. And a good number of those apples were picked by German POW's on loan from the compound at nearby Ft. Niagara.

 

There are other, less staged photos from the time showing women doing some of the dirtiest jobs you can imagine. (Think steelmills and coal power plants.) These look a lot less feminine, but it all contributed to the war effort.

 

(Added note: for as much problem as the US Government had in recruiting women workers for industry, the Germans had an even worse time not only due to their traditional values but also to Nazi propaganda that preached women belonged at home raising the kids and cooking supper.)

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  • 2 months later...
I was debating whether to post these colour photos under the Women's section of the forums; however, since you

started this topic on the Home Front & War Effort, I'll post 'em here.

 

31 Pictures to follow ( Same source, by-the-way. )

 

Here is a patch like the woman is wearing in posts 3-6 or so.

 

Patrick

post-1519-1224781948.jpg

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