This girl in a glass house is putting finishing touches on the bombardier nose section of a B-17F Flying Fortress navy bomber, Long Beach, California, 1942. (Photo by Alfred T. Palmer/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)





Portrait of Assembly and Repairs Department senior supervisor Eloise J. Ellis as she stands near the tail of a Navy plane at Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi, Texas, August 1942. (Photo by Howard R. Hollem/Getty Images)





Virginia Davis, a riveter in the assembly and repair department of the Naval air base, supervises Chas. Potter, a NYA trainee from Michigan, Corpus Christi, Texas, 1942. (Photo by Howard R. Hollem/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)





Women at work on bomber, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, California, 1942. (Photo by Alfred T. Palmer/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)





The careful hands of women are trained in precise aircraft engine installation duties at Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, California, 1942. (Photo by Alfred T. Palmer/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)





Drilling on a Liberator Bomber, Consolidated Aircraft Corp, Fort Worth, Texas, 1942. (Photo by Howard R. Hollem/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)





An A-20 bomber being riveted by a woman worker at the Douglas Aircraft Company plant at Long Beach, California, 1942. (Photo by Alfred T. Palmer/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)





Girl worker at lunch also absorbing California sunshine, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, California, 1942. (Photo by Alfred T. Palmer/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)





An unidentified lathe operator machines parts for transport planes at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas, October 1942. (Photo by Howard R. Hollem/Getty Images)





Drilling a wing bulkhead for a transport plane at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas, 1942. (Photo by Howard R. Hollem/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)





Woman working on an airplane motor at North American Aviation Inc, plant in California, 1942. (Photo by Alfred T. Palmer/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)





A young woman employee of North American Aviation Incorporated, working over the landing gear mechanism of a P-51 fighter plane, Inglewood, California, 1942. (Photo by Alfred T. Palmer/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)





Heil and Co. employee Lucile Mazurek works on black-out lamps to be used on Air Force gasoline trailers, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, February 1943. (Photo by Howard R. Hollem/Getty Images)





Operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, woman is working on a Vengeance dive bomber, Tennessee, 1943. (Photo by Alfred T. Palmer/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)





One of the girls of Vilter Manufacturing Co. filing small gun parts, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1943. (Photo by Howard R. Hollem/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)





A gist inspector for the Chain Belt Co. looks over one of the 25 cutters for burrs before inserting it in the inside of a 105mm howitzer at the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1943. (Photo by Howard R. Hollem/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)