From Birdwomen to Skygirls: American Girls' Aviation Stories

6. World War II, Working Women, and Aviation: 1940-1960

C H A P T E R 6 World War II, Working Women, and Aviation: 1940-1960
A fter the United States entered World War II in December 1941, customs, conventions, and attitudes seemed to change for both men and women. Men were needed to man the weapons and fly the aircraft of the modern military; women, the workplace recognized, were needed to fill the home front jobs once held by men. These jobs came in many forms and at many levels, blue collar to white collar, clerical to executive. For many Americans, however, the iconic image of Rosie the Riveter personified women’s role in the war effort. Whether embodied in the ubiquitous poster featuring a dungaree-clad woman, her hair wrapped in a turban, brandishing a fist and proclaiming “We Can Do It!” or in Norman Rockwell’s memorable Saturday Evening Post cover of 29 May 1943, showing a muscular Rosie at ease, eating her lunchtime sandwich while resting her feet on a copy of Mein Kampf, the woman engaged in heavy industry became the symbol of the wartime working woman. Nature and art merged to make the image a central one in American life. Recognizing the patterns imposed upon women’s vision of themselves prior to the coming of war, government agencies embarked on a concentrated publicity campaign “to convince women that they had the stamina and skill to do jobs formerly held by men.” In magazine stories and advertisements, on billboards or  in cinema newsreels, the American public saw image after image of women ably dealing with jobs traditionally considered “men’s.” Whether shown as welders, machinists, riveters, or builders and operators of heavy machinery, these women workers were presented in ways that “not only publicized their increased presence but also helped validate their new roles.”1 Almost overnight, women were being told that they could—and should—take their place alongside men throughout the industrial workplace. The effect of this campaign was extraordinary. Women were obviously needed throughout the workplace as the nation shifted to wartime status. Many were absorbed into office and clerical work, reflecting the needs of burgeoning local and national agencies and the work traditionally assigned to women. Others, though, in increasingly significant numbers, turned to industry. The transition was not entirely smooth. Some heavy industries, such as ship-building and steel-making, initially resisted adding women, as did their unions. When United States Steel began employing women, however, the female workers readily adapted to assignments as welders, crane operators, furnace operators , foundry helpers, and comparable jobs, establishing “that in time of crisis no job is too tough for American women.” Other defense plants preparing explosives, ammunition, aircraft, and other necessary supplies quickly moved to put women workers on the assembly line. Ammunition plants had over 100,000 women workers by 1943, while better than 250,000 women were employed making electrical equipment. Before the war, women constituted roughly 1 percent of the aviation industry workforce; by late 1943, they were some 65 percent of that workforce.2 These employment trends continued until more than 25 percent of the 16 million working women in the United States were engaged in defense industry work. That work had its benefits and its shortcomings. The eventual acceptance of women workers by the industrial unions offered them a chance to move up within the workplace. Although the wages paid women were often lower than  From Birdwomen to Skygirls those paid men, they were still high for the times (sometimes as much as 40 percent higher than comparable peacetime wages), giving women workers an unaccustomed source of income and a new degree of financial independence. The jobs were often physically demanding, and until the women performing them built up their muscles and their skill, they frequently fell short of the quotas assigned men. Yet, once adapted to the work, the women almost always proved the equal of their male counterparts, and sometimes their superiors. In the workplace and in the public mind, they were cementing the lasting image of “Rosie the Riveter.”3 Women also found a place in the military. The first of the armed forces to accept women was the army, inaugurating the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in June 1942. This organization had been proposed in Congress prior to the United States’ entering the war, but was not authorized until after Pearl Harbor. Initial limits on the number of women to...