Women Enter The Working World As Men Go To War

    Wife. Mother. Engineer. With our able bodied boys fighting overseas, the heavy lifting has been left in the capable hands of their wives.

    Donna Dickens
    by Donna Dickens

    Community Contributor

    1.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Enola O'Connell, age 32, widow and mother of one child, ex-housewife, now only woman welder at Heil and Co., Milwaukee, Wisc.

    Photo By: Howard R. Hollem

    2.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    The careful hands of women are trained in precise aircraft engine installation duties at Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif.

    Photo By: Alfred Palmer

    3.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    With a woman's determination, Lorena Craig takes over a man-size job, Corpus Christi, Texas. Before she came to work at the Naval air base she was a department store girl. Now she is a cowler under civil service.

    Photo By: Howard R. Hollem

    4.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Lorena Craig is a cowler under civil service at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas.

    Photo By: Howard R. Hollem

    5.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Formerly a sociology major at the University of Southern California, Mrs. Eloise J. Ellis (right) now "keeps 'em flyin'" at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. She is a supervisor under civil service in the Assembly and Repair Department. It is her job to maintain morale among the women by helping them solve housing and other personal problems. With her is Jo Ann Whittington, an NYA trainee at the plant.

    Photo By: Howard R. Hollem

    6.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Drilling a wing bulkhead for a transport plane at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas.

    Photo By: Howard R. Hollem

    7.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Mrs. Eloise J. Ellis, senior supervisor in the Assembly and Repairs Dept. of the Naval Air Base, talking with one of the men, Corpus Christi, Texas.

    Photo By: Howard R. Hollem

    8.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Transfusion donor bottles, Baxter Lab., Glenview, Ill. Formerly a sculptress and designer of tiles, Dorothy Cole converted her basement into a workshop to tin plate needles for valves for blood transfusion bottles prepared by Baxter Laboratories where she lives. She turns in her profits to war bonds to provide a college education for her young nephew.

    Photo By: Howard R. Hollem

    9.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    One of the girls of Vilter [Manufacturing] Co. filing small gun parts, Milwaukee, Wisc. One brother in Coast Guard, one going to Army.

    Photo By: Howard R. Hollem

    10.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Gist inspector, Mrs. Mary Betchner inspecting one of the 25 cutters for burrs before inserting it in the inside of a 105mm. howitzer at the Milwaukee, Wis. plant of the Chain Belt Co. Her son is in the army; her husband is in war work.

    Photo By: Howard R. Hollem

    11.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    War production workers at the Heil Company making gasoline trailer tanks for the U.S. Army Air Corps., Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mrs. Angeline Kwint, age 45, an ex-housewife, checking the tires of trailers. Her husband and son are in the U.S. Army.

    Photo By: Howard R. Hollem

    12.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, woman is working on a "Vengeance" dive bomber, Tennessee

    Photo By: Alfred Palmer

    13.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    With careful Douglas training, women do accurate electrical assembly and installation work, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif.

    Photo By: Alfred Palmer

    14.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Making harnesses, Mary Saverick stitching, Pioneer Parachute Company Mills, Manchester, Conn.

    Photo By: William M. Rittase

    15.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    This girl in a glass house is putting finishing touches on the bombardier nose section of a B-17F navy bomber, Long Beach, Calif. She's one of many capable women workers in the Douglas Aircraft Company plant.

    Photo By: Alfred Palmer

    16.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Lathe operator machining parts for transport planes at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas

    Photo By: Howard R. Hollem

    17.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Two Navy wives, Eva Herzberg and Elve Burnham, entered war work after their husbands joined the service, Glenview, Ill. They assemble bands for blood transfusion bottles at Baxter Laboratories. Mrs. Burnham is the mother of two children.

    Photo By: Howard R. Hollem

    18.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Helen Ryan, age 41 (with cap), widow and used to work in a show factory, Heil and Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Agnes Cliemka, age 23, married and husband may be going into the service any day, brother in the army. [She] used to be a clerk in a dep[artmen]t store. Unmasking and checking parts of the gasoline trailers that will be turned over to the Air Force.

    Photo By: Howard R. Hollem

    19.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Women at work on bomber, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif.

    Photo By: Alfred Palmer

    20.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    An A-20 bomber being riveted by a woman worker at the Douglas Aircraft Company plant at Long Beach, Calif.

    Photo By: Alfred Palmer

    21.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Helen Bray, who left school to become a mechanic at a western aircraft plant, is making an emplanage section on a new Consolidated transport, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas.

    Photo By: Howard R. Hollem

    22.

    Via Flickr: library_of_congress

    Carefully trained women inspectors check and inspect cargo transport innerwings before they are assembled on the fuselage, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif.

    Photo By: Alfred Palmer