Phyllis Ann Marxson Clark, an 18 year old North Dakota native, in a glass house is putting finishing touches on the bombardier nose section of a B-17F navy bomber, Long Beach, Calif. She's one of many capable women workers in the Douglas Aircraft Company plant. Better known as the Flying Fortress, the B-17F is a later model of the B-17 which distinguished itself in action in the South Pacific, over Germany and elsewhere. It is a long range, high altitude heavy bomber, with a crew of seven to nine men, and with armament sufficient to defend itself on daylight missions. Although the image of Rosie the Riveter reflected the industrial work of welders and riveters, the majority of working women filled non-factory positions in every sector of the economy. What unified the experiences of these women was that they proved to themselves, and the country, that they could do a man's job and could do it well. Photographed by Alfred T. Palmer, 1942. |