‘Women’s work’ redefined
“You must tell your children, putting modesty aside, that without us, without women, there would have been no spring in 1945.”
~ Inscription at the Rosie Memorial
in Richmond, Calif.
They were housewives of the 1940s who changed the whole notion of “women’s work.” Tough and capable, these traditional stay-at-home moms no longer waited for their hard-working husbands to come home.
That’s because America — literally lacking manpower during World War II — looked to women as a new source of labor.
From battle-hardened nurses on the front lines to Rosie the Riveters building bombers on production lines, women served their country as never before, and carved out new roles that would forever change the workplace.
Before the war, 95 percent of all women in the workforce worked in light manufacturing, retail, clerical, and health and education.
In 1940 only one of every 20 production workers in the auto industry was
female.
By 1944, out of a total membership of more than a million, some 350,000 Rosies
were UAW members building planes, tanks and ammunition. They earned $31.21 a
week, while men doing the same work earned $54.65.
But women who lived the “We Can Do It!” experience were expendable.
After the war, most of these “heroes in hairnets” put down their tools and returned to raising children and homemaking — even though a UAW survey showed that 85 percent wanted to continue working.
In 1955 the UAW took a bold and historic step for working women by becoming the first industrial union to establish a Women’s Department. It was created to encourage women’s participation in the predominantly male UAW.
In short, its mission was to ensure that “a woman’s place is in her union.”
Leadership roles for women also grew. Olga Madar, right, became the first woman on the UAW’s International Executive Board in 1966 and was later elected vice president. In 2002 UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn,below, became the first woman to serve in the union's second-highest office. |
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photo:Scott Sommer |
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