Kate Gleason Barriers

“My strength did not come from lifting weights. My strength came from lifting myself up when I was knocked down,”-Bob Moore. This quote demonstrates that people gain emotional strength from fighting through adverse experiences. This concept is shown in the texts “ The Story of Green-Blanket Feet”, an excerpt from Spider Woman's Granddaughter by Humishima, and the text Mary Rowlandson, an excerpt from “From a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.” Both women go through similar difficult situations, however, they both find strength in protecting things close to them and they both come out of their difficult situations stronger. This concludes that a person’s greatest strength is protecting what they love. Green Blanket Feet gained her strength in protecting her children and Mary Rowlandson found her strength in protecting her religion.

While Rosie’s image developed, “’Rosie the Riveter,’ [became] the collective nickname for the 8 million or so women who toiled in what were traditionally male jobs in the factories” (Bisett). Burned into the minds of the nation was the image of the red haired individual who encompassed proof of a woman’s ability to work. The cultural icon gave women a proudly worn title, representing a common persistence from traditional gender roles in the journey for equal working prospects. Peeling back the many layers of Rosie’s burly being exposes the angelic woman underneath a visor seen as

It was in the late 1890s that the citizens in Chicago, and other areas, felt it was a good idea to let women work. There was much demand for work in factories, because the heavy machinery we now use had not been invented at the time. The working conditions of the women in these factories were terrible. Many times, women were injured by the machinery used without compensation. As a result, in 1903, the National Women’s Trade Union

Initially, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) refused to recruit women because it was considered “expensive”. They estimated that housing women per capita would cost about $430 compared to men which was $235. The difference in cost estimations was due to “necessity of special provisions. After much heated discussions, the RCAF women’s division (RCF-WD) was created on July 2nd, 1941. Here, women were given clerical, administrative and support roles to allow as they were not allowed it be trained as flying instructors or combatants. They were employed to allow men in those positions to obtain pilot training. Similar to the CWAC slogan, the RCAF-WD’s slogan was “We serve that men may fly”. Although their roles were very restricting, there were many bright women that broke the boundaries put in their paths. Take Elsie MacGill for instance. She was the first female aircraft designer in the world and was nicknamed the “Queen of the Hurricanes” for her work in aircraft designing. She was a major component in the team that designed the Hawker Hurricane during World War 2, which is considered the most historic British aircraft until the present day. She also designed many aircraft accessories during World War 2 such as the de-icing and skies to assist planes in cold weather while flying. She and many others like her paved the path for women and the future of women in the Air Force. Over the course of the war and because of achievement from people like Elsie MacGill, women were slowly but surely being taken more seriously and given roles such as parachute riggers, laboratory assistants and electrical and mechanical trades roles. Women’s fantastic contributions to the Air Force helped greatly towards Canada’s already successful war efforts and helped in the

Women operated machinery, streetcars, buses, cranes, and tractors. They unloaded freight, built dirigibles, gliders, worked in lumber mills and steel mills, and made munitions” (Rosie the Riveter). In short, women dominated the workforce as female labor force grew by 6.5 million. In 1944, women composed of 35.4% of the civilian labor force and rose .7% in 1945. At the height of the war, there were 19,170,000 women in the workforce. (Hartmann 53-70)

Sally Ride accomplished many things in her lifetime. Some of the most important being a part of the first group of women introduced into NASA and inspiring children in science. Her accomplishments in life made her a very honorable individual. Ride faced a variety of obstacles as she helped break the barrier of women being introduced into NASA. Ride later became a professor at University of California San Diego, and established her own company, Sally Ride Science, whose purpose was to encourage young women to seek careers in science, math, and technology. Sally Ride was an inspiration to woman and an active advocate for women to pursue and learn the importance of science, math, and technology.

Even as a child, Margaret Knight was different from the other youth. Living from 1838 to 1914, she was born in York, Maine, but moved to Manchester, New Hampshire where her brothers became overseers in a cotton mill. Knight was a tomboy. Instead of dolls she enjoyed tinkering and creating things, and she often made kites and sleds for her brothers. Like most girls at the time, she helped run the machines in factories that produced textiles and shoes, but unlike the other girls, she used her time there to create inventions that improved the safety of the workers. Once she saw a shuttle spin from a machine and stab a worker. At just twelve, she invented a stop motion device to protect the employes from these dangerous situations. Sadly, she

Kathleen Rice was not an average woman of the early 1900s. She was university educated and extremely adventurous and was a woman far ahead of her time. Not only was she an incredibly intelligent woman she was an adventurer, explorer, prospector, and writer. She challenged the societal and gender norms of her time and paved the way for women to pursue their love of the outdoors. Born in 1882, she was raised in a time when women were considered subservient and spent most of their time indoors. Kathleen, known by her family as Kate, would go one to become the first female prospector, exploring the vastness of Canada’s north and overseeing various mining operations. She embraced the challenges of frontier living and became widely recognized for her colourful lifestyle and her impact on women in the North.

Martha Ballard was one of the most unique women of the late 1700s. She pioneered the path for the modern woman today. As the story is told through the narration of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, she deciphers what a working woman’s, specifically Martha, day to day was like back then. We as women in today’s society are expected to be the multitasking work force with their husbands and that is exactly what Martha did. In a world where the women were supposed to be submissive to their husband, she was much more successful than her husband.

Rose the Riveter is an icon that came out in the world war time. Back then women were entering the workforce in abundance of numbers during World War II. Women became the people to work when a wide spread of enlistments left holes in the industrial labor force. “Rosie the Riveter,” became the star in the 1940 and 1945 when the female percentage increased ten percent from twenty seven percent to nearly thirty seven percent. Also in 1945 almost every four women worked outside their homes. Rosie became the governments campaign aimed for the recruitment of women in the work place. Women worked in positions that use to be a male dominate work place. The women increased in female workers each year as needed. In 1943 women nearly more than

The war expanded the horizons of American women. The war brought a tremendous shortage of labor. Not only was there great demand for labor to build up the war machines necessary to fight, but also the men were leaving employment for military service in huge numbers. As a result society asked women to fill the jobs, and they rushed to take them. ”Women in 1944 made up more than one-third of the civilian labor force” (Foner). There was a new found image of women now know as “Rosie the Riveter” who was a strong welding worker who helped build machines for the war effort. Many women looked up to this campaign propaganda of Rosie and envisioned themselves similar to Rosie. When in fact that it was only typical for a few women out of many to be an actual welder. “In fact only about two million, or ten

he Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Mary Rowlandson lived in Lancaster, Massachusetts with her three children, her husband, and around 50 families, many of which were either killed or captured during the attack. Based on Mary Rowlandson’s writings it seems she was quite firm in her puritan beliefs, for example, strict adherence to studying the bible and god on the day of Sabbath was a central puritan belief, and while in captivity Mary was reflecting on how careless she was of gods holy time referring to the Sabbath, and how “evil” she had walked in god’s eyes. Mary believed that her fellow puritans were faithful to their god until their last moment, and she hoped

In 1944, women were accused of not doing anything for World War II (Weatherford 238). Nevertheless, Rosie the Riveter was a symbol for all working women during the war. After Rosie was used to bring women into the workplace, women gained strength by being in a group (Bailey 85, Weatherford 235). Although women were discriminated against during World War II, their skills in volunteering, constructing planes, ship building, working in war plants, and farming were said to be essential to winning the war (Bailey 90).

Before beginning the documentary, I was unsure what exactly a maker was; however, the documentary opened my eyes to what exactly a maker is and those who pushed boundaries and limits so that women can do all that they do in the world today. Since I am considering going to law school and am very inspired by Sandra Day O’Connor, I found her small portion in the documentary to be my favorite. It baffles me that not that long ago businesses and in O’Connor’s case law firms would not hire women, but her story is one that encourages perseverance. Lorena Weeks’s story was one which infuriated me; as a woman, to hear that Weeks was not allowed a promotion at Southern Bell only because the job was meant for men, the company was “protecting” women, and the company did not believe the woman should be the breadwinner of the family.

True womanhood created an ideology that was very beneficial to the textile industry (Hapke, 2001) as it was based strictly on a profit driven management system, which viewed its workers as factory hands rather than domestic workers.  Lowell Mills was a company that used this ideology to it’s full potential.  The making of a product was broken down into specific categories so that each person had a specific task and repeated that task over and over and over again.  Instead of one person making a product from start to finish, each person was given one task to perform repeatedly.  For example one person would be spinning the yarn while the next worker would be weaving cloths (Hapke, 2001).  This would increase productivity so that products could be manufactured at a more efficient rate that would generate more profit.