The Real Rosie the Riveter Project

Before the war, Jerre worked piecework jobs, one making velvet "Roosevelt Roses" for FDR's re-election campaign.

The death of Esther's father left her once middle-class family destitute. She worked defense jobs during the war.

Violet Johnson moved from the farm to Baltimore to work as a drill press operator for the Martin Aircraft Company.

Idilia rebelled against her strict father by getting a defense job for the Ohio Crankshaft Company.

From the Glen L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum in Baltimore, fourteen women discuss their experiences working at two major aircraft companies.

Susan discusses racial segregation at Eastern Aircraft and her role in the struggle to desegregate the defense industries in Baltimore.

Bonnie Gifford moved to the city of Muskegon when she heard they were hiring women during the war.

Marilyn Dawson, Doris Corrigan, and Marge Frederiksen talk about life and work on the home front in the small Midwestern town of Newaygo, Michigan.

Jane started working at age 14 at a 5 and 10-cent store. When war broke out, she moved to Savannah for a defense job.

Singe Nakashima worked at Lockheed Aircraft Corp. as a riveter during the war, in the same plant as her husband.

Mary Anne moved to Akron, Ohio to work for Goodyear Aircraft, eventually becoming the supervisor of the "Goodyear Aircraft Women's Squadron."

Mildred put herself through college and graduate school with her work as a riveter in Detroit.

When the war broke out, Evelyn Davidson became an aircraft mechanic and a civilian employee of the Air Force.

Dorice Dorine Hamilton was trained as a welder but found a job as a riveter for Boeing in Wichita, Kansas.

Frances and John Carter discuss her defense work and his time as a paratrooper during the war.

Mazie started working at the age of six when she started helping her father pull out the weeds in the cornfields.

Idamae Mason worked for Consolidated Vultee Aircraft in New Orleans, Louisiana during World War II.

Kathleen and Ken Powell talk about the enormous contributions made by women during the war.

Wilma and Amelia Mathauser are twins but don’t ask them who was born first, because they don’t know.

Arkie Huffman was small enough to crawl into the fuselage and buck rivets while she worked at Boeing.

Shirley Clark had to quit school to work when her father severely injured his arm. During the war, she was unknowingly part of the team that built the Atomic Bomb.

During the war, Edith Lyons worked in several places, following her husband around to different army bases.

Frances Ellis started out as a bucker in Seattle for Boeing Aircraft but when her partner, a riveter, got pregnant, they had Ellis start riveting.

When her husband was drafted, Arlene Crary found a babysitter and got a job at Boeing Aircraft.

Catherine Gaultier first worked for Sears for $7 a week, but as a Rosie in Cleveland for Fisher Body she made just over $2 an hour.

During World War II, Eileen Tench worked at the Goodyear Plant building PBM Navy airplanes.

Maybel Myrick worked as a secretary in the War Department of the Pentagon until the war ended.

During World War II, Nell Young worked in the Wayne Wright Shipyard in Panama City, Florida.

Winona Gillespe worked in a shirt factory before she moved to Michigan and found a job helping build bomber planes.

Thelma Edgar took the job of the male coach at the local high school when war broke out.

Marion Yagoda went to work at age 16 because her father didn't think women needed a high school diploma.

Raised in a two-room house with a dirt floor, Angeline picked cotton before receiving her teaching certificate.

During the war, Eva Chenevert worked as a riveter for Desoto Chrysler.