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Conditions in the Workplace:
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Lt. [Junior Grade] Harriet Ida Pickens [left] and FNS Frances Wills, shown here in December 1944, were the first African American WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) to be commissioned. Both were in the final graduating class of the Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School of Massachusetts.
Statistically, minority women -- single and married -- were more likely to seek employment outside the home than were white women. Their options were often restricted to factory or domestic work, and workplace conditions were often substandard. The factory jobs above, show examples of poor working conditions. |