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Woman operating a welding machine (considered a "man's job"), Philadelphia, USA, WW1, 1918
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this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026
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Looking at the background of the photo, it almost seems like women were shunned from the workforce simply cause the men would be distracted staring at them all day. They could of course just be looking at the camera as they weren't as common as they are today.
My girlfriend told me that she wanted to become a carpenter when she was around 15. Her dad knew a guy with his own firm. She could go there during her summer break to work and see if she likes it and whatnot. When the week was over, her dad had a talk with the dude and he told him that he doesn't think that it's a good fit, because the other men would just be distracted by a woman there. His description of the problem was apparently pretty gross, and he still doesn't talk to him, 20 plus years later.
It was pretty damn gross to think that HE was distracted by an underaged girl.
Unfortunately, it's a much wider issue of sexism than that. Women were often seen as 'delicate', 'emotional', or in some way not as mentally acute as men. Which is absurd, as women have been doing blue-collar work since the beginning of civilization, and such prejudices conveniently only excluded women from desirable jobs (and not labor-heavy work that was undesirable, like farmwork).
"Fun" fact: In farming, unless you were wealthy enough to afford oxen or horses, the man usually guided the plow and the woman pulled it.
I think part of it was to enforce the "stay at home wife" culture as well.
Yeah, that was a big aspiration for the middle-class, which skilled professionals (like welders) would often attempt to include themselves in.