Robin Bunton Morris's Blog

Glen was gone, and Mary got a job at Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego on production lines building fighter jets to support the troops.

During the war, women of America worked in positions usually held by men. Planes and equipment would have been in very short supply without them. At the time, women made a massive difference in the war effort. Women were forty percent of the workforce in 1943, learning factory jobs to support the troops and fill the void at home. Women employed in the aircraft industry before the war were less than one percent and grew to sixty-five percent during the war, with 310,000 women employed. They also used many women in the munitions industry.

The US government borrowed the famous Norman Rockwell Rosie the Riveter painting to make posters and stamps as an incentive campaign to bring more women into these industries. Making up for the absence of men who traditionally held those jobs, this was a turning point for women in the workforce. Women felt a new confidence by achieving financial independence. They still were not paid wages equal to men for the same jobs.

Women saved most of the money they earned during this time, and their savings contributed to families having the ability to buy a first house in the post-war 1950s. This led to the boom of prosperity and the beginning of the 1950s suburbs in America.

The women of America proved they had the toughness and resolve to do whatever it took to support the country and their young fighting men abroad. Mary worked long hours as a riveter and had to kneel for her shifts of eight hours while holding rivets into the airplane wings on the factory line. At the end of the work shift, with five minutes remaining, the tools were to be cleaned and put away.

The “boss man” walked above the workers on a ramp, looking down to oversee the operation. One day, the “boss man” looked down and noticed Mary had finished cleaning her tools with five minutes remaining in her shift. He pointed his finger down at her and yelled, “Get to Work.” Mary felt humiliated at being yelled at in front of all the other workers.

Glen had been gone for three years and looked forward to Mary’s letters. He said he received thirty letters in one day, so he lined them up by date and read them in order. The greatest comfort to the soldiers of both wars, the Pacific and Europe, was the mail they received from home talking about the daily lives of those waiting for their return. These letters gave them hope and determination to prevail.