The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter
Apr. 6th, 2016 10:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonyphoenixIn the early 90s I caught part of a documentary about women workers during WWII. To this day I remember one woman’s regret, that she never got to weld an iron gate.
About that time, I saw A League of Their Own with two friends. I remember because they were bemoaning that you didn’t see movies about women losing out on gains they’d made during the war once the men came back. I wanted to bring up the documentary but they were talking too fast back and forth and the topic shifted on before I had a chance. Perhaps that’s why I remembered it.
So, I found it recently and watched the whole: The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter. I had to interlibrary loan it because even Netflix doesn’t carry it.
There were shorts of the time, newsletts I guess, saying that women were going to work in factories to help the war effort. The women told a different story. One got a letter from a friend telling her she could make more in a day at the factories, in California, than she could in a week back home. She told another woman who said, “I’m leaving at six this evening. You can come if you want.”
Also, women, being given less money than the men, went through the union to get their pay raised. This was when the white women found out the black women were making 5 cents less per hour.
And of course at the end of the war these women lost their jobs. There were shorts beforehand, showing women workers saying they’d give up their jobs once the war was over. The women interviewed didn’t want to lose those jobs. One, a widow, had thought ahead and had taken every welding class they offered. She knew the jobs would be given back to men but thought if she knew enough she could keep one. No such luck. At an interview she was told she’d be hired immediately if she were a man but as a woman she was out of luck.
It was an excellent documentary and it left me wondering. So these women lost their jobs in the mid-40s. About thirty years later, their daughters start a new wave of feminism. How much of that drive for equality comes from the experience of their mothers?
About that time, I saw A League of Their Own with two friends. I remember because they were bemoaning that you didn’t see movies about women losing out on gains they’d made during the war once the men came back. I wanted to bring up the documentary but they were talking too fast back and forth and the topic shifted on before I had a chance. Perhaps that’s why I remembered it.
So, I found it recently and watched the whole: The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter. I had to interlibrary loan it because even Netflix doesn’t carry it.
There were shorts of the time, newsletts I guess, saying that women were going to work in factories to help the war effort. The women told a different story. One got a letter from a friend telling her she could make more in a day at the factories, in California, than she could in a week back home. She told another woman who said, “I’m leaving at six this evening. You can come if you want.”
Also, women, being given less money than the men, went through the union to get their pay raised. This was when the white women found out the black women were making 5 cents less per hour.
And of course at the end of the war these women lost their jobs. There were shorts beforehand, showing women workers saying they’d give up their jobs once the war was over. The women interviewed didn’t want to lose those jobs. One, a widow, had thought ahead and had taken every welding class they offered. She knew the jobs would be given back to men but thought if she knew enough she could keep one. No such luck. At an interview she was told she’d be hired immediately if she were a man but as a woman she was out of luck.
It was an excellent documentary and it left me wondering. So these women lost their jobs in the mid-40s. About thirty years later, their daughters start a new wave of feminism. How much of that drive for equality comes from the experience of their mothers?
no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 05:42 am (UTC):) It is totally worth investigating though!
no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 01:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 02:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-08 02:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-08 03:31 am (UTC)Oh well...it would have been interesting if Rosie was modeled after a woman of color (a citation on wikipedia's page suggests a Canadian woman actually).
no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 11:20 pm (UTC)Also, obviously, Agent Carter. (similar deal, only marvel universe)