World War II Homefront Era: 1940s: Women Replace Men in the Workforce

In this 1943 photograph by Dorothea Lange, a female African American shipyard worker leaves the yards at the end of her work shift. One shipyard welder remembered, "in 1942, a chaperone was hired to escort us to our workplace and herd us to the bathroom and lunch. You see, they didn't know how the men would react. But soon there were just too many of us." Prior to the war, the Bay Area's entire shipyard industry employed only 5000 workers. During wartime, shipyards in Oakland, Richmond, Hunter's Point, Mare Island, Sausalito, and the Stockton Channel would become the country's leading producers of "Liberty" and "Victory" ships. Southern California was the nation's headquarters for airplane construction.

Internet links:

Rosie the Riveter World War II Homefront National Historic Park, Richmond, Ca
http://www.rosietheriveter.org/

Richmond Arts and Culture Commission-info on Rosie the Riveter
http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/~arts/art/rosie.html

American National Biography-Asa Philip Randolph
http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-01101.html

Asa Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom/PBS biography
http://www.pbs.org/weta/apr/aprbio.html

Kaiser Permanente: Born and Raised in California
http://www.kaiserpermanente.org/locations/california/mod07/mod07-05.html

Why Affirmative Action? History of Executive Order 8066.
http://www.ushistoryplace.com/oped/december2000/december2000a.html

Dorothea Lang: Focus on Richmond
http://www.ibiblio.org/channel/Lange.html