Bracelet and ring
To Use This Document
With Your Students
Date
ca. 1943
Description
Sheet metal. When the United States entered World War II in December of 1941, over 6 million women joined the workforce for the very first time. This bracelet and ring are believed to have been made from scraps of sheet metal at one of Long Island’s aviation plants. As men left their jobs to fight for democracy abroad, women temporarily replaced them on the factory floor. Long Island became a pivotal center for aircraft production, and thousands of women found new jobs at the region’s largest aviation firms: Grumman Aircraft in Bethpage and Republic Aviation in East Farmingdale. By the end of 1943, roughly 30 percent of Grumman’s 25,400 employees were women. Although the majority of this workforce was white, President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802—signed in June of 1941—made it illegal for government contractors to racially discriminate when hiring, opening the door to African American women as well. The gains women made towards social and economic equality, however, proved to be short lived. Female workers were expected to give up their roles for returning male veterans, and the government’s wartime interventions failed to unravel discriminatory policies across the country. Nevertheless, these experiences laid the groundwork for future debates over gender and racial equality. This item was displayed in the Voices and Votes: Democracy in America Exhibition.
Type
Artifact
Region
Long Island
Era
The Great Depression and WW II
Topic
Industry, Labor, Women, World War II
Repository
Identifier
2002.6ab
Source
Preservation Long Island
Rights
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