Women at war photos reveal the lengths women went to take men’s industrial roles during WW2

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

A woman shows off a new uniform designed to protect female factory workers during the Second World War - including a special bra made entirely from plastic.
With vast swathes of America's male population having joined the fighting, the War years saw women filing into factories, shipyards and steelworks to take on what - until then - had been traditionally regarded as 'men's work'.
Safety officials decided the country's newly fledged female labour force needed more than just goggles and gloves to protect them from potential injury as they performed manual tasks.

Safety at work: Two women show off a new uniform - including a plastic 'bra' - designed to help prevent occupational accidents among female war workers in Los Angeles in 1943

 

The sturdy undergarment, named the SAF-T-BRA, is believed to have been designed by Willson Goggles, a Pennsylvania firm that manufactured safety equipment for manual workers.

 

In the 1940s, as World War II rumbled on, a generation of women rolled up their sleeves to keep shipyards, factories, steelworks and railroads moving.
This series of black and white photographs are taken from the archives of the Women's Bureau, which was established as part of the U.S. Department of Labor in 1920.
The Bureau was tasked with formulating 'standards and policies which shall promote the welfare of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, increase their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employment'.
The Bureau was also given the authority to investigate matters pertaining to the welfare of women in industry and report on its findings to the Department of Labor.

Manual labour: Female welders - and one man, right - line up for the camera at Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation in Pascagoula, Mississippi, in 1943

The home front: Clad in overalls, headscarves and safety goggles, three 'Chippers' get to work at Marinship Corporation, established in California in 1942 to build the ships required for the war effort

War effort: A female riveter sits atop an aircraft at U.S. aircraft manufacturing firm Lockheed Corporation during the Second World War

Chippers: The Second World War saw women from every social and economic background performing tasks that had traditionally regarded as men's work

Precautions: Two female workers tasked with cleaning around the top of 12 blast furnaces at U.S. Steel's works in Gary, Indiana, pose for the camera in their oxygen masks

Female workforce: An older man and a female mechanical helper join forces on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between 1940 and 1945

Handover: A team of female workers are seen preparing to take over responsibility for aircraft maintenance at a U.S. base during the Second World War

Digging in: A team of five female workers line up with their shovels on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the 1940s

Making connections: A row of women at work on a bell system telephone switchboard in the U.S. during the Second World War