Rare color photos: Women at work in the 1940s

CBS News ^ | 28 Aug 2012 | Edecio Martinez / LOC

[smokingfrog]

Just photos and captions.

Woman aircraft worker, Vega Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, Calif. Shown checking electrical assemblies

1942 June

[nascarnation]

I think now, people are too busy or too lazy to buy ingredients and cook. It’s not a good development.

[Antoninus II]

They weren’t much for safety back then.

I've been working in machine shops for over 30 years. Seeing those machines in "new" condition is fascinating! And the tooling is so crude by today's standards. "You can walk with a wooden leg. You can chew with false teeth. But you can't see with a glass eye. Wear your safety glasses!"

[Born to Conserve]

“American industry unleashed. The Germans and Japanese had no idea what they were up against.”

True. I am always disappointed when they have shows about how amazing the German, and even the Japanese technology was, and how we almost lost. The actual fact is that for every “secret weapon” they had, we had five, and ours worked. Even something as mundane to us as our “Big Boy” locomotives were miracle machines to the Germans — they didn’t believe their own spies.

[ReagansShinyHair]

They are almost all thin, and they have their original breasts. Amazing to see.

Also, some of them look SO OLD. There is a 26 year old who I thought was 40, and a 32 year old who I thought was at least 45.

[Psalm 144]

Some very attractive women in those shots. Very pensive as well.

[EEGator]

I’m in complete agreement with you on that.

[mylife]

I “see” your point.

[rawhide]

Oct. 1942

Worker putting finishing touches on the bombardier nose section of a B-17F navy bomber, Long Beach, Calif.

[chrisser]

Kind of refreshing that they aren’t all surgically “enhanced”.

[Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh]

Even Rarer Photos: ANYONE working now

[Gay State Conservative]

Everybody had a job to do.The men were in uniform,the women were in the factories.Contrast that with today where 90% of the population sees themselves as victims of something or other and two thirds of the country claims to have some sort of disability.

[jboot]

The Germans did not put their economy on a total war footing until 1944, four years after Great Britain, three years after the USSR and two years after the USA. It is hard to imagine, but while Sixth Army was starving to death at Stalingrad less than 20% of German women were in the work force, and the majority of those that were were employed as household menials.

They never had a chance.

[a fool in paradise]

Barney: "Y'know, Fred? I hate to see the women working so."

Fred: "Yeah, Barney. I know what you mean."

Barney: "Let's go behind the garage where we can't see them."

1960s Winston Cigarette commercial.

[tophat9000]

B17 is not a Navy bomber..its Army..the few that were used by the Navy would be PB1’s

[tophat9000]

B17 is not a Navy bomber..its Army..the few that were used by the Navy would be PB1’s

[tophat9000]

B17 is not a Navy bomber..its Army..the few that were used by the Navy would be PB1’s

[KC_Lion]

(Sigh) Back when Everything in our equipment was Made in the U.S.A., not just "assembled in usa of foreign and domestic materials"

[wetgundog]

My mom, fresh out of high school, riveted bombers in Tarrytown, NY while her boyfriend, future husband, and later my dad was helping to shoot Japs out of the skies of China with the 14th Army Air Force.

[martin_fierro]

VA VA VOOM!

[WorkingClassFilth]

No kidding. Even the plain janes look good.