"In a desolate corner of the Port of Richmond, dozens of women wearing polka-dot handkerchiefs and wielding blowtorches have spent the last two weeks volunteering their time to try to weld a piece of history back together. The SS Red Oak Victory is the last surviving ship of the 747 that were churned out at the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond during World War II. Now a group of women, led by welders who know well what it is like to try to make their way in a male-dominated profession, are volunteering to restore the ship."
"These volunteers are "a testament to women building the ship and carrying the torch forward and showing our youth that the trades are viable professions for women," said Sarah Pritchard, the executive director of the Rosie the Riveter Trust, a nonprofit helping to coordinate the project. Like just about every ship that came out of that effort, the Red Oak Victory was partly built by women, who were called in to factory jobs in an industrial frenzy to replace men who had shipped overseas to fight in the war."
Dozens of women wearing polka-dot handkerchiefs and wielding blowtorches volunteered at the Port of Richmond to weld and restore the SS Red Oak Victory. The SS Red Oak Victory is the last surviving ship of the 747 produced at the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond during World War II. Women welders and tradeswomen are leading the effort to showcase that skilled trades are viable careers for women and to honor the labor contributions of wartime female workers. The restoration emphasizes continuity with the Rosies, women who entered industrial jobs during the war and produced war materiel rapidly.
Read at Los Angeles Times
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]