A welder at a boat-and-sub-building yard adjusts her goggles before resuming work, October, 1943. By 1945, women comprised well over a third of the civilian labor force (in 1940, it was closer to a quarter) and millions of those jobs were filled in factories: building bombers, manufacturing munitions, welding, drilling and riveting for the war effort.
Bernard Hoffma—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Read more: http://life.time.com/history/world-war-ii-classic-photos-from-the-20th-centurys-defining-conflict/#ixzz2ga3Kp0mpCan’t for the life of me say why I think this image is so cool, or so quintessentially American. I wonder if this woman knew, the moment the camera snapped, what an utter badass she was.