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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.
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).
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.
"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.
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.
At what point did welders start to wear something that protected their whole face rather than just their eyes? And is there a reason not to wear gloves? (Looks like the men are similarly unprotected)
Oh this doesn't protect her eyes. These are just spark goggles with some cloth inside to dim the brightness a bit. They would keep sparks out, but that's pretty much it. This is 1918 and the first real welding helmet wouldn't be made till 1937, and even then UV protection was severely lacking.
They had better protection than this at the time, but it was basically a large leather hood, which was probably torture to wear, so as people do, they didn't wear it. And that also didn't prevent UV from burning their eyes.
And is there a reason not to wear gloves? (Looks like the men are similarly unprotected)
Yes. It was 1918. Workplace safety as a concept was basically not a thing. Injury was a problem for the worker, and it was their fault too. If you don't want to burn your hands, don't touch hot metal, you idiot.
And it was 1918. A little sunburn never killed anyone! Hell, they might not even have known it was the UV light causing the sunburn on the hands and neck.
Source: I do Workplace safety for a living and history for fun. It hardly ever overlaps, so feel free to ask stuff.
She's torch welding. Not arc welding. No UV.
How do they avoid welders eyes?
By dying young.
They don't
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She's brazing using oxyacetylene torch. This does not produce harmful UV rays like arc welding or much hot metal splatter.
Note that this is gas welding, there is no UV or anything bad like with WIG, stick or MIG.
MIG , TIG weren't even a thing back then. She's likely brazing.
That's a whole lot of sparks for brazing, she is doing something wrong then.