In 1943, two spirited young teachers decided to do their part for the war effort by spending their summer vacation working the swing shift on a B-24 production line at a San Diego bomber plant. Entering a male-dominated realm of welding torches and bomb bays, they learned to use tools that they had never seen before, live with aluminium shavings in their hair, and get along with supervisors and co-workers from all walks of life. They also learned that wearing their factory slacks on the street caused men to treat them in a way for which their "dignified schoolteacher-hood" hadn't prepared them. First published in 1944 and illustrated with humorous drawings, this text is an on-the-spot account of how two women assumed the wartime roles that would change society, coping with traditional attitudes they encountered along the way.
Constance Bowman tells of foremen who struggled futilely to enforce a rule requiring all women to wear caps; of young co-workers who wistfully imagined earning their high school diplomas; and of the bruises and cut fingers that she and Clara Marie Allen endured in making final installations to the "Liberator" planes that rolled off the Consolidated Vultee production line.
In 1943, two spirited young teachers decided to do their part for the war effort by spending their summer vacation working the swing shift on a B-24 production line at a San Diego bomber plant. Entering a male-dominated realm of welding torches and bomb bays, they learned to use tools that they had never seen before, live with aluminium shavings in their hair, and get along with supervisors and co-workers from all walks of life. They also learned that wearing their factory slacks on the street caused men to treat them in a way for which their "dignified schoolteacher-hood" hadn't prepared them. First published in 1944 and illustrated with humorous drawings, this text is an on-the-spot account of how two women assumed the wartime roles that would change society, coping with traditional attitudes they encountered along the way.
Constance Bowman tells of foremen who struggled futilely to enforce a rule requiring all women to wear caps; of young co-workers who wistfully imagined earning their high school diplomas; and of the bruises and cut fingers that she and Clara Marie Allen endured in making final installations to the "Liberator" planes that rolled off the Consolidated Vultee production line.
Constance Bowman Reid has written many highly acclaimed biographies of twentieth-century mathematicians. She lives in San Francisco, CA.
"[A] rare contemporaneous account. . . . [Bowman and Allen]
wandered into a mostly male world of wrenches and rivets, forever
changing society’s view of what women could and should do. . .
.Wide-eyed and witty.”—San Diego Union-Tribune
"An enjoyable book, a smooth read, a vibrant reminder of a time of
near-unanimous citizen support for American political strategies
and goals. It harkens from an era when the myth of 'one America'
still held sway. It is also a tale of two women negotiating gender,
identity, autonomy and cross-class insights. Fifty-six years later,
readers are fortunate the authors put pencil to paper each night
upon their return home from the bomber factory. Theirs is a story
worth hearing and remembering.” —The Journal of San Diego
History
"Bowman and Allen's journal-like account offers valuable insights
into the experiences of these two young, white women who engaged in
decidedly unfeminine behavior, by the standards of 1943, on behalf
of the war effort."—The Historian
"Without being the least bit polemic, Bowman Reid teaches us about
the war roles of men and women and how the changing costumes of
women - from linen skirts to slacks - reflects socioeconomic
change."—San Jose Mercury News
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