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There were female riveters before WWI?

There were female riveters before WWI?

Rosie the Riveter was a WWII icon. Although women did move into the workplace during WWI, it was much more limited than in WWII. I don't know if there were any women riveters during WWI...but I don't think it was a common thing like it was in WWII.

There were women in the workplace in Britain in the 1800's, and I thought many would be Irish. Finds I am correct and it is plausible or safe to assume, as there was pressure on the company to get this much publicized ship built,(Remembering the Unsinkable Molly Brown history) and the unexpected return of the aforementioned sister ship for immediate repairs; that the riveters could easily have been drawn from available for hire and for lower pay, "poor women already accustomed at being in the workplace".

Archives studied referenced (if you read the links in comment) suggested Riveters quickly hired may well have been composed of women, because of historical events in Europe which effected employment/the workplace at the time of the building of the Titanic.

"Until the first immigrant wave of Irish in the late 1830s, it was respectable for native born white single women to work in these factories. However, it was always understood that they would return to domestic pursuits after marriage. The immigrants changed the nature of the work force, while at the same time new technologies changed the types of jobs they performed. Mills became more structured and time-oriented, machines spun faster determining the pace of production, and employment was no longer seasonal. The Irish women saw factory work as a permanent job and so had a different outlook on their position."

The blight which devastated Ireland's potato crops in the late 1840's was not confined to Ireland alone. It also descended upon other countries, notably Belgium and the Netherlands. It is true that these countries also lost a percentage of their populations through famine-related deaths: the Netherlands suffered a death toll of 60,000 and Belgium lost 48,000 ‑ about 2% and a little over 1% of their respective populations. Yet at the same time Ireland, under the control of the British Government, lost a staggering 13% of its population to death by disease and starvation.