DBQ #3 Industry

World War II, helped to bring California, as it did the rest of the United States, out of the
depression. In 1939, after Hitler invaded Poland, unemployment decreased as people went back
to work producing military supplies for our allies. Because of its weather, and proximity to the
Pacific Ocean, California received a large portion of federal defense funding. Between June
1940 and September 1945, the federal government spent 16.4 billion on major supply contracts
in California.1 Industrialists like Henry J. Kaiser, John Northrop, Donald Douglas and others,
took advantage of these contracts by expanding their existing plants and creating new ones. At
the peak of production, in 1943, the shipbuilding and Aircraft industries were employing over
250,000 workers each.2 The lack of traditional labor, due to the draft, opened up a window of
economic opportunity, in the defense industry, for African Americans, Caucasian women, and
African American women. While all these groups worked in the same industries, their
experiences on the job and the changes they affected were uniquely their own.
The window of opportunity brought on by WWII, created a mass migration of African
Americans to California. According to Gerald Nash, more than 250,000 African Americans came
to California looking for a better life, raising their population from 1.8% in 1940 to 4.4% in
1950.3 Most of them found jobs in the defense industry, with an estimated 26% of the African
American labor force in shipbuilding and repair.4 Shipbuilding was a unionized industry, so
African Americans joined unions like the ILWU (International Longshoremans and
Warehousemans Union) and others. Because of discriminatory practices, however, they were
often denied entrance into the mother union, and placed into segregated secondary unions. This
lack of union representation kept African Americans in the lowest paying jobs and limited their
opportunity for advancement. As a response to this discriminatory practice, African Americans
created their own organizations to work for social change in the work place and community.
African American, Joseph James, fought and won a lawsuit against segregated unions, based on
the law prohibiting discrimination in hiring for defense work. The California Supreme Courts
ruling barred segregated unions, and the practice of firing those who refused to pay union dues.5
Despite the gains African Americans made in fair employment, within defense industry, when the
war was over so were the jobs. Because of the lack of diversification in employment, African
Americans had the highest rate of unemployment after the war, at 30% by 1947.6 Although
African American experiences during this time did not immediately lead to the American dream,

it gave them the idea of what middle class life was like. This knowledge and a new found
confidence lead African Americans, in California, to organize and become leaders in the fight for
equal rights.
While African Americans flocked to California for employment opportunity, Caucasian
women of the period needed convincing to enter the work force. Between 1942 and 1944, there
was an intense campaign to get women into the work force. Slogans like America at war needs
women at work7, along with articles telling women they could shorten the war and save lives by
entering the work force were seen in popular magazines. These campaigns worked, with the
majority of Californias female workers entering the aircraft industry. From January 1943 until
VE-day 40% or more of the states airframe employment consisted of women8. At the peak of
Aircraft production in 1943, over 120,000 women were working in the industry.9 When the war
ended, and the men came home, the majority of women went back to work in the home or to the
industries in which they had worked in previously. The percentage of women working in better
paying defense jobs went down to 9%.10 However, According to Joan M. Jensen and Gloria Ricci
Lothrop, as many as a third of the women who went back into the home returned to the work
force after a short period.11 One woman who gave testimony in the documentary Rosie the
Riveter said, After the war, I couldnt go back to being a club woman, when I knew there were
things that you could use your mind for.12 I am sure many women felt the same way. After
experiencing what it is like to be a valued member of the work force, earning their own money
and make their own decisions, women developed a new level of self-respect. This new respect
for women changed society forever. Middle class people started sending their girls to college.
College educated women got better paying jobs, which, over time, lead women to the level of
equality we know today.
While much of the experience of African American women, during this period, was
similar to that of African American men, there are aspects that were uniquely their own. African
American women had a harder time finding jobs than African American men. Because of past
employment experience, they were stereotyped as being fit only fit for domestic work.
Furthermore, many employers claimed it would lower the moral of their work force if they hired
African American women.13 Once in the jobs, they were faced with the same discrimination as all
African Americans. According to the first hand account of Fanny Christina Hill, at the aircraft
factory where she worked, African American women were segregated into one department, and

there were some departments that African Americans were forbidden to even walk through. Hill
did however state that African American women had it easier than the men did because, African
American men were required to do all the back breaking work, not fit for women. We do learn
however, from her account and those of other sources, that many African American women were
able to improve their job positions by successfully petitioning the unions and the Fair
Employment Practices Commission.14 After the war, many African American women
unsuccessfully tried to take their newfound skills into the private sector. Unfortunately, because
of discriminatory hiring practices, they had trouble attaining jobs. It was not uncommon for an
African American woman to be refered to a job, by a government employment agency, just to be
told that there was no position available.15 Even though African American women did not have as
positive an experience after the war as Caucasian women did, the skills they learned working in
the defense industry help to improve their status in society. Before the war, in 1940, 55% of
black women worked as domestics by 1950 this number declined to 40%.16 Because of the
success they found working with government agencies to fight job discrimination, within the
defense industry, many African American women stayed active in the civil rights movement,
fighting for equality in all aspects of society.
The increased need for defense production and the lack of available labor, brought on by
World War II, opened up a window of economic opportunity for African American men,
Caucasian women, and African American women. While they all found jobs in the same
shipbuilding and aircraft industries, their experiences on the job and after the war were different.
It was because of the experiences of each group, in the defense industry, that Women and African
Americans gained the confidence needed to fight for the equal rights we as Americans enjoy
today.

Notes
Paul Rhode, An Economic Historian Challenges the Nash Thesis in Major Problems in California History 1997,
ed. Sucheng Chan and Spencer Olin, (Boston:Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997), 319.
2

Ibid., 320.

Gerald D Nash, World War II Transforms Californias Economy in Major Problems in California History 1997,
ed. Sucheng Chan and Spencer Olin, (Boston :Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997), 312.
4

Albert S. Broussard, Changes in the Status of African American Workers in the 1940s and 1950s in Major
Problems in California History 1997, ed. Sucheng Chan and Spencer Olin, (Boston :Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997),
347.
5

Ibid., 350-351.

Ibid., 352.

Sheridan Harvey, Rosie the Riveter, YouTube, the Library of Congress,( Washington D.C., 2009)

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Reports on Californias Airframe Industry, 1945 in Major Problems in
California History 1997, ed. Sucheng Chan and Spencer Olin, (Boston :Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997), 302.
9

Ibid., 302.

10

Joan M. Jensen and Gloria Ricci Lothrop, Womens Wartime and Postwar Experiences in Major Problems in
California History 1997, ed. Sucheng Chan and Spencer Olin, (Boston :Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997), 354.
11

Ibid., 354.

12

Harvey, Rosie Riveter

13

Broussard, Changes in Status, 348.

14

Fanny Christina Hill Fights Discrimination Against Black Workers in the Aircraft Industry in Major Problems
in California History 1997, ed. Sucheng Chan and Spencer Olin, (Boston :Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997), 330-332.
15

Broussard, Changes in Status, 348.

16

Jensen and Ricci Lothrop, Womens Wartime, 356.