{"id":365,"date":"1942-03-17T10:36:56","date_gmt":"1942-03-17T14:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/?p=365"},"modified":"2017-03-17T10:47:25","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T14:47:25","slug":"female-riveter-aids-war-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/1942\/03\/17\/female-riveter-aids-war-production\/","title":{"rendered":"Female riveter aids war production"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war, many people felt the urge to support the war effort. One Bronx woman, Mary Kaminsky, decided to do just that by applying to work at a General Motors automotive factory in Linden, N.J. The factory, now used for U.S. military plane production, hired 18-year-old Kaminsky as a riveter for fighter planes.<\/p>\n

The work of a riveter is intensive and dangerous, but that doesn\u2019t stop Kaminsky from making the two-and-a-half-hour commute to Linden, N.J. Accompanied by her older sister, Kaminsky travels by trolley from the Bronx to the train, the train to New Jersey, then a taxi to the factory.<\/p>\n

Raised by Ukrainian immigrants, Kaminsky grew up with four siblings in a small apartment in the Bronx. The neighborhood was a mixture of Jewish, Italian, and Irish. The Kaminskys were Orthodox Jews but never felt anti-Semitism. Kaminsky\u2019s father worked as a bagel maker in a Bronx basement, where he\u2019d boil and bake them.<\/p>\n

Growing up with a large family meant Kaminsky\u2019s job as a riveter wasn\u2019t her first. At 8 years old, she plucked fresh, kosher chickens for three cents a chicken. At 14, she was babysitting children in Long Island. Neither prepared her for the work she would face as a riveter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was looking at ads in the paper to see what kind of work I can do,” Kaminsky said. “[I] saw an ad in the paper about working on aircraft fighter planes.\u201d She said she didn\u2019t realize how much stress the work would cause, but it didn\u2019t bother her.<\/p>\n

Riveting is a competitive position that involves using long drills on the aileron of an airplane wing. On her first day, Kaminsky said she was shown what to do and told of the necessity of being cautious with the drill, since there has to be one clear hole to put the rivet into. During her first week, she was supervised by inspectors until they were confident in her ability to do it correctly.<\/p>\n

\"Women

Women riveters working on a wing panel of a Douglas SBD Dauntless fighter plane. From Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI was the fastest on my shift\u2026 We were always trying to outdo each other,\u201d she said on the atmosphere with her coworkers. \u201cIt didn\u2019t matter as far as the money. We just wanted to get these planes out. [It\u2019s] a very patriotic feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to argue that Kaminsky isn\u2019t dedicated. She\u2019s never taken time off, even when sick. It is challenging work, but as she said, \u201cI think the competition [makes] you fight harder.\u201d She said all of her co-workers, like her, were bitter and hurt after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which inspired more drive and ambition.<\/p>\n

Women make up 25 percent of the workforce for New Jersey General Motors, and supervisors report that many women work as fast as the men. However, even with similar output, that couldn\u2019t erase the change in fashion Kaminsky had to adhere to.<\/p>\n

As a precaution for working around machinery, women are encouraged to wear pants. Kaminsky said she\u2019s often stared at when commuting to work because of her clothes. She prefers to wear pants to work, even if it bothers other people.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We] could wear something else, but it [is] so much easier to bend down and pick up the drills\u2026 than if [we] wore a dress,\u201d she said. It comes down to a matter of safety for those working with the equipment. \u201cYou don\u2019t want the dress to be caught into the drill or into the machinery, because then you could have a real<\/em> problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dresses aren\u2019t the only thing that could get caught in the machines. Women with long hair are required to keep it\u00a0covered, often with hair nets. \u00a0Supervisors often warn\u00a0workers to cover their hair or risk\u00a0ending up in a hospital, according to Kaminsky.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey resented it,\u201d she said of some female co-workers. \u201cThey covered it while the supervisor was watching, and then take it off again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Setting those issues aside, female riveters are playing a major role in war production. One of the most satisfying moments for them is when they get to watch finished planes be tested. During a break between shifts, riveters sometimes gather outside to applaud as planes take off for their test flights. Supervisors often bring in cakes or lollipops to celebrate the completed production.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just beautiful to watch,\u201d Kaminsky said. \u201cWe just [get] the fun out of knowing that we [are] doing something to help the war effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mary K. Cohen oral history interview. \u201cRosie the Riveter WWII Home Front Oral History Project.\u201d Interview conducted by David Dunham in 2011. Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2012. \u00a0http:\/\/vm154.lib.berkeley.edu:3002\/searchinterview\/fullDisplay?data=129748, accessed on December 17, 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war, many people felt the urge to support the war effort. One Bronx woman, Mary Kaminsky, decided to do just that by applying to work at a General Motors automotive factory in Linden, N.J. The factory, now used for U.S. military plane production, hired 18-year-old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2175,"featured_media":469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-profiles","category-the-home-front","category-women-and-the-war-effort","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/files\/2016\/12\/Inside_the_Douglas_aircraft_plant_at_El_Segundo_Cal._Women_riveters_working_on_a_wing_panel_of_an_SBD._-_NARA_-_520742-e1481843380837.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8bpwr-5T","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":757,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions\/757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}