Women Riveters at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, 1919
With men at the front, women took many new jobs during World War I — as mail carriers, police officers, and farm laborers who joined the Women’s Land Army. African American women, generally limited by white prejudice to jobs in domestic service and agriculture, found that the war opened up new opportunities and better wages in industry. When the war ended, women usually lost jobs deemed to be men’s work. In 1919, however, these women were still hard at work in the Puget Sound Navy Yard, near Seattle. What clues indicate their attitudes toward their work, and toward one another? National Archives.