Greetings ~
"Men's work is from sun to setting sun. But women's work is never done". We all remember hearing that saying from time to time. And in reality, it was right years ago. Today however, things have changed and women work about as much as men. Plus many men today are doing the housework, washing the dishes and doing the laundry. Of Course, doing the dishes today in most households means simply putting them into a machine and pushing a button. But in decades past, men went to work and women stayed home and tending to the chores that kept the house running smoothly.
Since the dawn of time there has been a few females that worked at regular jobs but these were office jobs, waitresses and laundry companies mostly. They also tended bars, worked in beauty salons and a host of other female oriented positions including the oldest in the world. But we won't go there.
But it was during time of war that women were really put to the test. And they passed with flying colors. They were mostly in the position as nurses caring for wounded soldiers. But some were responsible for caring for the home while their husbands were fighting in foreign lands. Many females watched over the homes and children and some also held jobs just as a single parent would do today. They did this all through the Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War I. But another war 30 years later would really change the way we look at women and also change the way many of us lived.
During World War II, factories and businesses all over America and Europe were faced with a big problem. Labor shortages. After all, the men were mostly now fighting the war. They were no longer at home working in those factories and businesses. Companies all over were hurting and manufacturing was at a near standstill.
I don't know who it was, but someone got the idea that since we still had thousands and thousands of women at home, and many, if not all had money troubles now that the men were gone for who knows how long, why not employ the women? Sure, they weren't as smart as men and they couldn't lift the same amount as men, but we needed workers and the females needed money. So, women were called upon to fill the shoes, and the jobs of the missing men. And the managers and bosses got a big surprise. As it turned out, the women were not only as smart as the men had been but in many cases they were smarter. They learned the jobs and caught on quickly. They could lift, pull, push and do the same jobs that the men had been doing and they did them very well. Also, the bosses found out that women were more dependable than the men had been. They never called off and did just what they were told with no arguments.
So, during World War II, the women did welding, sheet metal work, rubber work including making tires, They did work on ammunition for the war effort, they made mess kits, worked on airplanes including the engines, made rifles and even machine guns, built gun turrets, made parachutes, manufactured medicine and medical supplies for all branches of the armed forces and tons of other jobs. Women even worked in coal mines to keep the lights on around the country and the furnaces in the homes hot. There were female bartenders, restaurant cooks, gas station attendants, barbers, lawyers, newspaper, milk and coal deliverers. This was the first time that citizens saw female police officers, firemen and even women doctors. This would change a lot in our lives because, once the war was over, many of these women did not want to give up their jobs.
Bosses all over were thrilled that the women caught on so fast and were very good at what they did. And, unlike the men of the day, when the women finished at the job, they went home to work on the house and feed and tend to their kids. But at 4:00 am, 6:00 am etc., they were back on the job. This went on for six days a week...every week...for five years. There was even female lumberjacks, or rather, lumberjills. And if you needed your car worked on, odds were, a female mechanic would do it at the local gas station. There were also female truck drivers, bus drivers, locomotive engineers on the railroad and, for the first time, female airplane and helicopter pilots.
So, when you see a woman working in a factory today, their are the direct result of those brave and hard working females of the 1940's who stepped up to the plate and got the jobs done. Personally, my grandmother worked at Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. in Akron, Ohio during the 1940's. She was a widow at the time and met her future husband there on the job. He was a veteran of World War I.
This blog is dedicated to all the women of the past who, when their country needed them, dropped what they were doing and got involved to keep us going through the dark days of the war. They proved to the world that they were smart enough and tough enough to do anything a man could do. And boy did they succeed.