Working Women: Amazing Historical Images (PHOTOS)

On Labor Day it's interesting to think about the work you might have been doing had you lived fifty or eighty years ago. If you were working class or poorer and needed to support yourself or your family, you might have found yourself toiling in a textile mill or filling mail orders or welding, to name a few of the occupations women around the world have held through the years.

Thanks to Life.com, we're able to feature these amazing historical photos of women at work. (View the full gallery on LIFE.COM.)

Did your mother or grandmother do work similar to any of the jobs shown here? We'd love to hear her story in the comments below, or feel free to email it to us at [e-mail].

PHOTOS:

Comments

[ooooliver]

10:39 PM on 09/13/2011

Is it me or were there no woman of color working during this time?

[zekolama]

09:19 AM on 09/10/2011

Hey, where's the photo of them cooking dinner?

[Volantiad]

01:24 PM on 09/07/2011

My family story is from about 40 years ago when my Mom, with a BA in Theater Arts applied for a stage manager job at a theater. She'd been the stage manager at her college for years so she not only had the degree, she had the on-the-job experience to back it up. She applied and was turned down. Someone at the theater told her that some kid with no experience got the job because he was male. A couple of weeks later, the guy that had interviewd her called her up to see if she wanted to be the stage managers' assistant. She had been warned, though: her friend at the theater that had told her about the boy getting the job because he wasn't a woman was turning out to be unqualified and incapapble of doing his job. The theater boss wanted my Mom to train him up. Naturally, she declined. She ended up getting a much better paying (and with better benefits) job with the state soon after that. This all took place in 1973, I think.

[zekolama]

09:45 AM on 09/07/2011

The one amazing image you will never see is one of a woman handing HER paycheck to her husband, like men have been doing to women for the past 100 years.

[20thCentury Man]

03:54 AM on 09/11/2011

I get the feeling your check is as impressive as your manhood.

[JAVA VB]

07:35 PM on 09/06/2011

keep up the good work !

[Momklok]

05:52 PM on 09/06/2011

The women in Belfast, Ireland in the felax mill were working barefoot. I wonder why. Their feet must have been so sore after a day like that.

[Volantiad]

01:26 PM on 09/07/2011

Yah, Momklok, that caught my attention, too. How strange. I couldn't imagine why they weren't wearing shoes, either.

[Nelson Montana]

04:59 PM on 09/06/2011

Amazing shots -- from a time back when women didn't have to try and be like men in order to prove they were tough.

[Randybostonterrier]

01:50 AM on 09/07/2011

A vast majority of women worked in these fields for 1-4 yrs tops and became housewives. Women of today have to work for decades. Big difference, men aren't breadwinners anymore. If you want soft women have them stay at home and raise children.

[Nelson Montana]

10:39 AM on 09/07/2011

That really is a separate issue from my point, but point taken.

[PamperedHousecat]

06:36 PM on 09/12/2011

"If you want soft women have them stay at home and raise children".
Since when is raising children which is 24/7 a "soft" job?
When does that woman get a paid vacation, sick days, time-and-a-half overtime, or even a set lunch break?
Where's her 401k, her medical benefits, bonuses or retirement fund?

Where are you living where "soft women stay at home raising children"...unless they have a nanny, a cook and a housekeeper?
This is the second decade of the 21st. century, NOT the Gilded Age of the 1890's.

[sheluvslife]

02:25 PM on 09/06/2011

Leave it to the commentators to spoil the spirit of an article!

[Mariah Craven]

10:52 AM on 09/06/2011

This is very cool -- I love historical photos like this. In the future, though, it would be awesome to have some diversity in the pictures. The work of Japanese and black women in 1942 would have told a more robust story about what was happening in our country at that time.

[sheluvslife]

02:15 PM on 09/06/2011

Mariah, those were my exact thoughts when I saw these photos!

[Volantiad]

01:31 PM on 09/07/2011

Sadly, Maria Craven, pictures of Japanese American women during WWII would have shown them in concentration camps. I dont' know if they were allowed to do anything wile interned. African American women were absolutely out in the workforce during WWII and I would love to see pictures of them and their contributions, too.

[GustavoRejivik]

12:02 AM on 09/06/2011

I really don't see the big deal here ... women doing things that men created and taught them to do ... cool pics though...

Women's section, Black Voices, Latino Voices ... ugh, anything missing here ..?? How about Muslim Voices .. all and every voice but the voice which built this nation .. white Male Voices!!

[WYHKTai-Tai]

06:21 AM on 09/06/2011

Put a shirt on!

[sheluvslife]

02:16 PM on 09/06/2011

Gustavo, haven't you noticed that pretty much throughout history all we have had were white male voices?!

[Volantiad]

01:40 PM on 09/07/2011

Ha, ha, ha, Sheluvslife! Snap! He's a moron, don't worry too much about him. He probably doesn't know fun fact like that the car heater, muffler and windshield wipers were all invented by women. So if J@ck@ss#1 (Gustavo Rejivik) is at all appreciative of having a warm, quiet car that he can see out of, he has women to thank for it!

[Backtalkisahorse]

12:53 PM on 09/10/2011

Don't agitate him. He'll throw that White man power on you.....You know that power that only they possess---severe disollusionment.

[srooge]

11:01 PM on 09/05/2011

Only a few could and the rest will get special rules so they can pass it anyway.

[justwhendoesitend]

10:05 PM on 09/05/2011

Women Welders!!

Some of best welders I have met were women. There a very very few of them. They were far from manly and often need help moving material around but they were excellent welders. The company I worked for built bridges for the most part. Back in 70s.

[GEM-592]

09:59 PM on 09/05/2011

They could if a man showed them how! Ouch!

[Momklok]

05:54 PM on 09/06/2011

Yeah, no cheauvanism in that guy.

[GEM-592]

06:20 PM on 09/06/2011

No sense of humor in the other one

[noaxe397]

08:13 PM on 09/05/2011

Are the two women in the foundry photo barefooted? Ouch!

[jules233]

05:27 PM on 09/05/2011

My mother was in the Army in WWII as a nurse and served overseas Europe. For this our family is extremely proud of her and the millions of women everywhere who did whatever was asked of them in the war effort, including raising their children. Those women who did not go to the factories, sacrificed in their following the rationing and many volunteered with the Red Cross or USO. The point is that they did what they had to to help. Actually after the war, most of them were the first ones fired or laid off to make way for returning GI's, even if they wanted to remain on these non-traditional jobs. Today, women do much the same. The difference is now for about 98% work is not optional and they still manage to raise families. This is not a zero-sum game, women everywhere do what their lives allow or dictate them to do. Sadly, in a lot of situations the old saying of having to do twice as much to be thought half as good still applies and still for 77 cents on the dollar.

[Volantiad]

01:49 PM on 09/07/2011

Well put, Jules233! I tried to give you an 'insightful' badge but the window wouldn't come up. Yah, that really hits the nail on the head " having to do twice as much to be thought half as good" sadly still rings true too often. I'm lucky most of my supervisors aren't quite that way. However, when menial cleaning tasks come up they still unconciously look at me although I'm flanked by 2 guys that are 3 pay grades below me. I remind them of this, they're a little flustered and then direct the junior guys to do the work.