Existing comment:
Women's Branch of the Army's Industrial Service Section
During World War I, millions of women contributed to the war effort, not only through volunteer service but by entering the labor force as nurses, agricultural laborers and factory workers. Here, a woman works in the converted Baldwin Locomotive property in Eddystone, Pennsylvania, on the Delaware River south of Philadelphia. After April 1918, 3,000 women participated in a work force of 15,000 to manufacture Enfield rifles for British and American troops. In the second photograph, a woman manufactures weapons for the Midvale Steel & Ordnance Company in the Nicetown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The factory had a longstanding contract with the U.S. Navy, and by the end of the war, its workforce had increased to 7,300. Without sufficient men to maintain the war effort, women were needed and the U.S. government encouraged them to work. |