Guy’s History Book: Real Riveting Chicks
Here at Guy we love our women, and we like to raise the bar beyond tits and fast cars. Those are great! But so is a good story while you’re peeking in at the most beautiful people on the planet.
Rosie the Riveter. Have you heard of her? If nothing else, the name might remind you of something from history class way back in high school. You might also know her from propaganda posters or Norman Rockwell’s famous Saturday Evening Post cover from 1943 (below). Men had gone to war, and many of the 19 million women of the working class at that time suddenly had drastically different choices. Some traded type writers and sewing machines for factory jobs, riveting guns, and welding tools.
The image above is by J. Howard Miller who was hired to make a series of images for the Westinghouse Company’s War Production Coordinating Committee in 1942. Propaganda? You bet. Although this image wasn’t resurrected until the early 1980s and wasn’t known as Rosie at the time. (Source: Wikipedia)
Norman Rockwell created the Rosie the Riveter we all know. The nonchalant female saint of big tool-weilding bibically trods upon the cornerstone of anti-semitic literature — Hitler’s Mein Kamf, while peacefully holding her sandwich, her halo floating gracefully above her welding helmet.

Rosie the Riveter, Norman Rockwell 1943
We thought it might be cool to take a look at some real women at work from the 40′s. Currently, our culture seems to be missing a platform to check out women at work, except for the manufactured context that photographers create below. Ah, the car wash genre of pin-up girls… They’ve chiseled their own place into the world of images created for men. We’ve got calendars full of them. Nothing wrong with that. But they’re not really working. Guy’s a fan, of course, but there’s so much more if you dig a little deeper…

Photographer unknown. Contact us if you know authorship.
Guy would like to take a look at some real women at work — women trained to work powerful equipment. And really, some of them are pretty impressive. It’s a good reminder that the girl next door is the source of the original pin-up. It’s the idea that while hauling the impressive weight of her own responsibility — under the apron or overalls, though the loud noise, and in the middle of so much work, stress, and political turmoil, the woman next door can remind us of the gentler side of life if we stop to appreciate them.

Women welders on the way to their job at the Todd Erie Basin drydock, 1943. Photo by Alfred Palmer taken for the Office of War Information.

Women workers install fixtures and assemblies to a tail fuselage section of a B-17 bomber at the Douglas Aircraft Company plant, Long Beach, California, October 1942.

Joining sections of wing ribs to reinforce the inner wing assemblies of B-17F heavy bombers, Long Beach, California, 1942.

Man and woman working together on the cockpit shell of a B-25 bomber at the plant of North American Aviation, Inc., Inglewood, California, 1942.

Lathe operator machining parts for transport planes at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas, October 1942.

Woman working on an airplane motor at North American Aviation Inc. plant in California. Photo by Alfred Palmer for the Farm Security Administration, June 1942.

Riveter Oyida Peaks, completing part of her NYA training to become a mechanic at the Naval Air Base, Assembly and Repair Department, Corpus Christi, Texas, 1942.

Riveter at work on Consolidated bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Howard R Hollem for the Farm Security Administration, October 1942.

In the Douglas Aircraft Company plant, a woman worker is putting finishing touches on the bombadier nose section of a B-17F navy bomber in Long Beach, Calif. 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. Photo by Alfred Palmer for the Farm Security Administration, October 1942.

Woman framed by circular opening of cowling, hands through opening, working on lower section. Part of the cowling for one of the motors for a B-25 bomber is assembled in the engine department of North American Aviation Inc. Photo by Alfred Palmer for the Farm Security Administration, October 1942.

Two women working war jobs, inspecting heads of heat-treated pistons prior to Brinnell hardness testing, Aluminum Industries Inc in Cincinnati, Ohio, February of 1942.

Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, California, 1942.

A real-life "Rosie the Riveter" operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, Tennessee, working on an A-31 Vengeance dive bomber. Credit: Alfred T. Palmer, U.S. Office of War Information

Taking a close look at magnesium alloy and castings while working on an inspection line in a factory, Aluminum Industries Inc in Cincinnati, Ohio, February of 1942.

Checking a gasoline hose on a gasoline trailer prior to being turned over to the Air Force, 1943. This woman is Agnes Cliemka, age 23, Heil and Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Real female riveters providing civil service while assempling an airplane in the Assembly and Repair Dept. at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas, 1942.

Female riveter, Oyida Peaks, kneeling on an airplane wing, riveting as part of her NYA training to become a mechanic at the Naval Air Base, Assembly and Repair Department, Corpus Christi, Texas, 1942.

Peggy Bridgeman at the left demonstrates to Ruth Harris the correct technique while their instructor, Lee Fiscus, looks on attentively, in the Gary plant of the Tubular Alloy Steel Corporation, United States Steel Corporation subsidiary.

Photo of a real rosie, Mrs. Irma Lee McElroy, painting the American insignia on airplane wings as a civil service employee at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas, August 1942.
- Women workers install fixtures and assemblies to a tail fuselage section of a B-17 bomber at the Douglas Aircraft Company plant, Long Beach, California, October 1942.
- Lathe operator machining parts for transport planes at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas, October 1942.
- Woman working on an airplane motor at North American Aviation Inc. plant in California. Photo by Alfred Palmer for the Farm Security Administration, June 1942.
- Riveter at work on Consolidated bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp., Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Howard R Hollem for the Farm Security Administration, October 1942. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division LC-DIG-fsac-1a34953.)
- This girl in a glass house is putting finishing touches on the bombadier 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. Photo by Alfred Palmer for the Farm Security Administration, October 1942. Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division LC-DIG-fsac-1a35360.
- Woman framed by circular opening of cowling, hands through opening, working on lower section. Part of the cowling for one of the motors for a B-25 bomber is assembled in the engine department of North American [Aviation Inc.]‘s Inglewood, Calif., plant. Photo by Alfred Palmer for the Farm Security Administration, October 1942. Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division LC-DIG-fsac-1a35314.
- two women working war jobs, inspecting heads of heat-treated pistons prior to Brinnell hardness testing, Aluminum Industries Inc in Cincinnati, Ohio, February of 1942.
- taking a close look at magnesium alloy and castings while working on an inspection line in a factory, Aluminum Industries Inc in Cincinnati, Ohio, February of 1942.
- Checking a gasoline hose on a gasoline trailer prior to being turned over to the Air Force, 1943. This woman is Agnes Cliemka, age 23, Heil and Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
- Real female riveters providing civil service while assempling an airplane in the Assembly and Repair Dept. at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas, 1942.
- Female riveter, Oyida Peaks, kneeling on an airplane wing, wearing a suite and operating a drill, riveting as part of her NYA training to become a mechanic at the Naval Air Base, Assembly and Repair Department, Corpus Christi, Texas, 1942.
- Women welders on the way to their job at the Todd Erie Basin drydock, 1943. This image shows a group of about a dozen women wearing overalls and visors or hard hats walking together beside a building. This photo was taken by Alfred Palmer for the Office of War Information. Credit Line: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division LC-USW33-25834-ZC.
- Peggy Bridgeman at the left demonstrates to Ruth Harris the correct technique while their instructor, Lee Fiscus, looks on attentively, in the Gary plant of the Tubular Alloy Steel Corporation, United States Steel Corporation subsidiary.
- A real-life “Rosie the Riveter” operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, Tennessee, working on an A-31 Vengeance dive bomber. Credit: Alfred T. Palmer, U.S. Office of War Information
- Photo of a real rosie, Mrs. Irma Lee McElroy, painting the American insignia on airplane wings as a civil service employee at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas, August 1942.
- Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, California, 1942.













![Woman framed by circular opening of cowling, hands through openi Woman framed by circular opening of cowling, hands through opening, working on lower section. Part of the cowling for one of the motors for a B-25 bomber is assembled in the engine department of North American [Aviation Inc.]'s Inglewood, Calif., plant. Photo by Alfred Palmer for the Farm Security Administration, October 1942. Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division LC-DIG-fsac-1a35314.](http://guy.com/a/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/36_riveter_woman_framed_by_a_circular_opening_of_a_cowling_working_on_lower_section-100x100.jpg)











