Riveters, Pilots & Spies—Oh, My!
JUMP TO RECIPES
This post honors Linda Lashley, who through her re-enactment work carries on that indomitable spirit found in the World War II Rosies
AND
Remembers her grandmother, Lillie Jones Lashley, one of the real Rosies who worked for freedom in the Wilmington NC shipyard
In a world of manual labor with few conveniences, such as that of the early 1900s, it is understandable how the division of labor in a family might have come about. Men typically worked outside the home while women more often worked in the home.
Women who had to work were usually teachers, servants, textile workers or seamstresses; some were saleswomen, bookkeepers or librarians. Secretarial and clerical jobs had only just opened up for women. It was a world of very limited opportunity, especially for women of color.
War Changed the Roles of Women
World War II jarred the world from these limitations. Dire necessity brought millions of strangers together in a no-holds-barred fight for liberty. Some women took very dangerous jobs in combat zones. Millions more were left on the Home Front—transformed into its own war production zone.
American women joined the war effort by taking up jobs men had left behind—not entirely leaving their former duties but adding to them. They stepped into factories, offices and industries, in many cases working out of love for those men and as a way of supporting them in the fight.
In 1940 about 11 million American women were in the workforce. By 1945 there were more than 20 million. Besides the military, about five million civilian women served in the defense industry and commercial sector.
Women in Allied nations worked in a wide range of jobs as evidenced by this partial list:
Army Nurse Corps—Many were near the front lines including at Normandy and the Pacific theater where they faced death and POW camps. Several hundred received combat decoration.
WASPS—Women Air Service Pilots
WRNS—Women’s Royal Naval Service, the women’s arm of the Royal Navy. They were known as wrens.
The Women’s Land Army—civilian organization for women working in agriculture
WVS—Women’s Voluntary Service—helped in air raids and emergencies
WAC—Women’s Army Corps
WAVES—Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, women’s reserve of the Navy
WRCNS—Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service
Canadian Women’s Army Corps
Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division
Women’s Royal New Zealand Naval Service
SPARS—short for the Marine Corps motto “Semper Paratus, Always Ready,” women’s Coast Guard unit
WOWS—Women Ordnance Workers
Women were journalists, pilots, canteen staff and bomb range markers. They were clerks, wireless telegraphists, radar plotters, weapons analysts, range assessors, electricians and air mechanics. They built weapons, tanks and aircraft. Some were spies and codebreakers, including at Bletchley Park where the infamous Nazi Enigma code was broken.
Some—such as Julia Child—were secret service agents. Check out my earlier blog post (The Spy Who Made Soup) on her! She worked in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) that became the CIA. A smaller number became signalers with the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) which managed signal and cipher offices, switchboards, line circuits and some anti-aircraft communication systems. Queen Elizabeth—Princess Elizabeth at the time—was a mechanic and truck driver with the ATS during the war.
Women also served as radar detectors. This was completely new technology at the time, co-invented by actress Hedy Lamarr. Born in Austria, she fled from her husband, an arms dealer who entertained both Mussolini and Hitler. She was a huge aid to the Allies for both her technological achievements and her phenomenal success raising money for the war effort.
Lillie Jones Lashley, WW2 worker at the Wilmington, NC shipyard
Civilian Women in Industry—the Rosies
I do not want to downplay the service or sacrifice of any person who fought for our freedom, whether male or female, volunteer or military. If they served on the battle field, the wheat field or the home front to save lives, they did their part. But it is my privilege in this post to honor a group of civilian women who stepped up in a mighty way for the war effort. Sometime around the middle of the war, they got the nickname Rosies.
Rosies embodied the strength and resilience of civilian women during war. Many women entered the work force for the first time as Rosies, although a large number were single and already in the work force, including many women of color who had been working in domestic service. The new jobs that became available to these women offered them more dignity and higher pay, and opened a whole new world.
Women sometimes endured mockery or ridicule in their new jobs. They dealt with the dangers of getting to and from work on foot or by bus in overcrowded cities. In some cases, they worked too far from home to go back except on weekends. In such cases they rented a room or participated in “hot bunking”—renting a bed for eight hours whenever it was not their work shift. The term got its name from the beds still being warm from the previous sleepers!
Lillie Lashley & the Wilmington Shipyard
Women who did return home after work still had to take care of tasks there, including cleaning and cooking. At the Wilmington Shipyard in North Carolina, workers like Lillie Lashley returned to temporary housing like the apartments in Maffitt Village—built without insulation and only for the duration of the war. The housing was urgently needed for the tens of thousands of workers flooding into work at the shipyard.
Lillie was an electrician’s helper in the welding department for the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, helping build the 126 Liberty (cargo) ships and 117 larger Victory ships that were sent from Wilmington into the war.
In an eerie stroke of timing, the first Liberty ship fabricated at the shipyard, the S.S. Zebulun B. Vance, was commissioned on December 6, 1941—the day before Pearl Harbor. The United States was not even at war when the ship launched but was meant to be part of a “bridge of ships” envisioned by President Roosevelt to help nations fighting the Nazis and Fascists.
The ships Lillie worked on had illustrious fates, from becoming temporary hospital ships to surviving multiple bomb attacks to being scuttled to form a breakwater for the Normandy invasion. The scuttled ships made it possible for men and materials to safely land in France. Between all these events they served as a food and supply lifeline to fighting troops.
The term Rosies became synonymous with these women in 1942 when Kay Kyser made a hit song of “Rosie the Riveter.” The lyrics were written by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb. Several bands made their own versions of the song, but Kyser’s version struck a chord with Americans. Norman Rockwell’s Rosie made the front cover of the May 29, 1943 Saturday Evening Post. With her blue overalls, lunchbox, and shoe on Mein Kampf she perfectly depicted the spirit of women fighting for freedom.
At the time, women in factory jobs were so new that work shoes weren’t even made for women. They fixed that problem by wearing shoes produced for the Boy Scouts. In some areas, such as the Wilmington NC shipyard—where an astonishing number of ships were built during the war—women were allowed to report in their everyday clothes, except that pants and shoes were required. At the time, women didn’t wear pants so this was a breakthrough for them. Bandanas or other hair coverings were essential for safety around machines. The original Rosie poster, from the Office of War Information, pictured a factory worker in her bandana of war ordnance logos on a red background.
Rosies, along with women in many other jobs around the world, changed the face of the labor force worldwide. Behind the scenes as they assembled planes, ships and machinery; solved brain-busting encryption ciphers; drove trucks, piloted aircraft and saved mangled bodies, they changed history. They, just like the men, considered it their patriotic duty. And when, after the war, they were discharged so their jobs could be given to the returning servicemen, they went back to their former lives or found new paths for their futures. But the future had already been forever changed.
Millions of lives were ended or altered. Many could never go back to the way life had been. Many families had been destroyed. People were missing who never were found. Children were orphaned. People starved to death or were nearly dehumanized by the attempt to hold onto life. Millions were flat-out murdered. The world was changed forever. But in the midst of the chaos, the Rosies brought an indomitable spirit that freedom is worth fighting for. How much we still need their example today.
March 21 is Rosie the Riveter Day in the United States.
Here are two supper dishes Lillie Lashley sometimes made after her shift at the Wilmington Shipyard. They are, to say it 1940s style, the bee’s knees!
Fried Sweet Potatoes
These are almost too simple, quick and easy to be real--but they are!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Wash and peel the sweet potato; cut into thin slices, about 1/4 inch (1/2cm) thick.
- Heat ghee or oil in a heavy skillet (cast iron is preferable).
- Add potato slices to skillet and cook, turning every 2-3 minutes, until done. Thin slices need about 5 minutes, thicker slices need up to about 8 minutes.
- Season if desired; then, remove from skillet and serve.
Fried Cornmeal
This recipe was a supper favorite for some who worked in the Wilmington NC Shipyard during World War II. It is fast to make and completely delicious--best eaten hot!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Whisk cornmeal and salt in a small bowl.
- Add 3/4 cup of the water; then, add more a tablespoon at a time as needed, until the batter falls freely (without lumps) from a spoon but is not watery.
- Heat ghee or oil in heavy skillet (cast iron is preferable).
- Drop batter by tablespoonfuls into skillet. Cook 3-4 minutes on each side until golden brown and crispy. Serve hot.
References
Wrightsville Beach Magazine, Vol. 18 Issue 10 October 2017. Wilmington, NC: SOZO8, Inc.
“Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.”
Proverbs 31: 25, 30-31