Rosie the Riveters: Women Factory Workers during WWII

By Ariel Diebold

Rosie the Riveter Song

The United States was involved in World War Two from December

1941 to May 1945.

The Draft

• Selective Service Act of 1940 was the first peace time draft requiring all men ages 21 to 36 to register with the selective service system.

• The draft was done by lottery of men from 21-45.

• By the end of the war ten million draftees were inducted into the military.

The War Manpower Commission

• The War Manpower Commission was the board that regulated the best use of labor in the U.S. from 1942-1945 (Dictionary.com, 2014)

• The commission create a campaign to recruit women into the work force.

Clip- Safety Training Video

Campaigns

Recruiting

• Despite recruiting to war time jobs U.S. employment services also deemed hotel, restaurant, laundry and store jobs “essential civilian industries.”

• Women workers were regarded as patriotic not feminist; they were supporting the men at war, not advancing their roles in the work place.

• The women joining the workforce consisted of women who were both independent and married, including: wives, widows, divorcees and students.

Aircrafts

• Women accounted for 310,000 aircraft workers.

• They were 65% of the workforce in the industry during the war, before the war they only made up 1%.

Aircrafts Continued

• Women who were uncomfortable with the labor of building planes took jobs manufacturing the upholstery, and painting radium on tiny measurements so pilots could read them at night.

Glenn Martin, Martin Marietta

“We have women helping design our planes in the engineering departments, building them on production lines and operating almost every single conceivable type of machinery.”

Clip- Personal Stories

Other Industries

• Women worked in the auto, electronic, defense, and textile factories as well.

Clip- Women Welding

Production

• Production doubled between 1939 and 1945.

• This production included 300,000 aircrafts, 86,000 ships, 64,000 landing craft, and millions of artillery and small weapons.

Prejudice

• It was assumed women could rivet because its similar to sewing.

• Women were subjected to catcalling and harassment in the work place.

• Their place in the workforce was considered a temporary situation, it was assumed they would be willing to give jobs to veterans after the war.

• Some business were segregated by gender.

• Some businesses refused to provide special training.

• Some reclassified jobs to avoid the “equal pay equal work” stipulation.

Non-factory Jobs

• Women also worked as telephone operators, nurses, railroad workers, journalists, in shipyards, in the military (400,000), for the Red Cross, the USO, and the Office of Strategic Services.

After the War

• Despite making up 20% of union membership, unions did not provide proper representation to keep women’s jobs.

• Some women agreed that it was their duty to give their job to a vet.

• Between 1943 and 1945, polls indicated that 61 to 85 percent of women workers wanted to keep their jobs after the war. (Hartmann, 1982)

• Between 1943 and 1945, polls indicated that 47 to 68 percent of married women workers wanted to keep their jobs after the war. (Hartmann,1982)

Influence on the Work Place

• Women’s armed forces integration Act of 1948

• “The act authorized regular and reserve status for women in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Before then, and except for nurses, women could not serve in the regular forces in peacetime. ” (Borlik,1998)

Works Cited• Hartmann, Susan M. The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s. Boston: Twayne Publishers,

1982.• Hawkes, Sarah. "Who Was Rosie the Riveter?: The American Factory Women of World War II." US History Scene.

July 1, 2012. Accessed November 27, 2014. http://www.ushistoryscene.com/uncategorized/rosietheriveter/.• Knutas, Keijo. "Added Some US World War II Propaganda Posters to Www.digitalpostercollection.com - Blog

DigitalPosterCollection." Blog DigitalPosterCollection. Accessed November 28, 2014. http://blog.digitalpostercollection.com/added-some-us-world-war-ii-propaganda-posters-to-www-digitalpostercollection-com/.

• Levine, Bruce C. "A Nation Transformed: The United States In World War II." In Who Built America?: Working People and the Nation's Economy, Politics, Culture, and Society, 523-526. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Pantheon Books, 1989.

• "United States Department of Defense." Defense.gov News Article: DoD Marks 50th Year of Military Women's Integration. June 17, 1998. Accessed November 22, 2014. http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=41380.

• • "WWII Women Pilots Awarded Congress’s Top Civilian Honor." HMH Current Events. Accessed November 28, 2014.

http://stg.hmhcurrentevents.com/wwii-women-pilots-awarded-congresss-top-civilian-honor/.• "War Manpower Commission." Www.Dictionary.com. Accessed November 24, 2014.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/war manpower commission.• "World War II: Photos of Women Factory Workers on the Home Front, 1943 | LIFE | TIME.com." LIFE. Accessed

November 26, 2014. http://life.time.com/history/women-of-steel-life-with-female-factory-workers-in-world-war-ii/#10.