Women’s Work (WWII Style)

A group of railroad wipers shares lunch in one of a series of photos, put together by BuzzFeed, of women employed by the war effort during World War II. We’re used to seeing stuff like this in the literal black and white vision of the past, but these photos were taken for the purposes of propaganda (though all the workers are real, and doing their actual jobs) so some expense was spared to make them as vivid as possible.

We’ve posted a few more below:

What are railroad wipers, you ask? They keep giant engines full of grease and dust clean and operable.

This lady, Dorothy Cole, set up her own tin plating system in her basement, to make needles for the valves on blood transfusion bottles.

The only details we have on the following pictures is that the first two women are working on bombers.

Here, Mary Josephine Farley repairs a motor,

And here Cora Ann Bowen (left) and Eloise J. Ellis stand together. Bowen was employed as a cowler (the cowling is the cover that rests over the engine, reducing drag, directing cooling airflow, and doing a few other vital things), while Ellis was a Senior Supervisor in the Assembly and Repairs department at Corpus Christi Naval Air base in Texas.

To see all thirty pictures of working women in World War II, check out the whole post at BuzzFeed.