| The subject of this project, African American Women in the World War II defense industry, began as a result of the dearth of literature on American's World War II events within the context of black women's experiences. The abundance of historical and feminist research on “Rosie the Riveter,” the general name given to the white women who worked within the world War II defense industry, barely acknowledges the unique realities of African American women who worked in the industry during this period. Additionally, because the historical realities of black women and white women were and continue to be uniquely different, this project refers to black women defense workers during World War II not as Rosie the Riveters but as “Pearlie Maes.” Moreover, an examination of African American female defense workers brings a different perspective to the discourse on women defense workers that many scholars, in their studies of Rosie have failed to address. Consequently, this study posed these three queries: (1) What were the experiences unique to black women workers in the World War II defense industry? (2) What was the relationship between the World War II labor shortage and unemployment in the black female labor pool? And (3) what role did gender and race play in the lives of black women workers in World War II. In answering these queries, both primary and secondary source data, as well as a qualitative interviews from Pearlie Maes were included.;The findings of this study were presented in nine chapters that document the historical chronology of factors and events leading up to the creation and penetration of Pearlie Mae into the defense industry. The latter chapters discuss the difficulty and challenges experienced by Pearlie Mae, such as discrimination from employers, employees and state funding employment agencies. At the center of the study's discourse is the agency, that is activism and self-determination of the black community in general, and black women in particular. The timeliness of black agency is used to propel the historical discourse and movement of black women's penetration into the defense industry.;This study concluded that the black community's use of agency and protest to secure jobs during the War permitted a small but meaningful group of black women to benefit from defense employment. These benefits included graduating from a working class to middle class status and transcending the role of domestic to non-traditional jobs. The findings also revealed that defense industry work was also a “stepping stone” to better employment which later enabled these Pearlie Maes to enter professional roles. Despite the success of black women who managed to acquire defense employment, this study also found that the rampant discrimination exercised by the defense industry, not only thwarted more meaningful numbers of black women who could have potentially secured defense work, but actually helped create the very same labor shortage the industry purported to have experienced. |
