Tradeswomen celebrated at Ford Motor Stamping Plant with Rosie the Riveter display
Wanted: women tool and die makers, welders, and other skilled trade workers — good pay, lucrative benefits.
When men were called to the front lines during the world wars, women took on the assembly lines in factories. And while they did it out of duty at the time, women today are making it their careers.
A group of tradeswomen at Ford's Woodhaven Stamping plant are showing that "going into manufacturing now is a choice for women, where it wasn’t before World War II" according to a news release. "Hiring 'Rosies' to do the work while the men were off fighting the war showed the world that women could do the work. They were stronger and more diligent than they were given credit for."
The iconic image of Rosie the Riveter was created to recruit female defense workers during World War II, yet the campaign lives on through women in skilled trades.
"We're still doing it years later!"
Rosie the Riveter Day is nationally celebrated on March 21, but workers at the Woodhaven Stamping plant are celebrating all month long with a display, spearheaded by tool and die maker Cassandra Valentine.
"I wanted this to be as authentic as possible and I’ve been in contact with the Rosie the Riveter Archives," Valentine said. "We’re a continuation of what women started those 80 years ago. The original Rosies opened the door for all of us."
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Photos of diverse women replacing men in production lines during World War II, along with photos of 12 current female Woodhaven Stamping employees, dressed up as Rosie, are lined up in the plant's lobby area. Each participating woman recreated the historical photos and submitted a short biography on why they chose a career in the automotive industry.
As a member of the diversity and inclusion team and LGBTQ+ organization at the Ford Woodhaven Stamping plant, Valentine is "always trying to make things all inclusive," she said. She made an effort to represent each of her coworkers' ethnicities in the World War II photos on display.
In the middle is a "cardboard cutout of a Black Rosie and a Caucasian Rosie, back-to-back, in the iconic Rosie pose" for the Ford Woodhaven Stamping employees to enjoy, Valentine said. The center of the cutout says, "We're still doing it years later!"
Encouraging women to pursue skilled trade jobs
"Nobody can ever say to somebody, 'You can't do that,'" Valentine said. "In fact, I had a person, one time, say to me, 'You can't weld.' I had to correct him: 'No, I can weld. I'm not supposed to be welding, but I can weld. And if you'd like, I can teach you how.'"
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Valentine has been in the trade industry for over 30 years, with 20 of those years being in management. She has been working at the Ford Woodhaven Stamping plant as a tool and die maker for over four years now, manufacturing outer body panels.
"Right now, there are not enough tool and die makers and skilled tradespeople out there," Valentine said.
Baby boomers make up the majority of skilled trader workers. As they retire, younger generations have been showing less interest in skilled trade jobs, Valentine explained. Automotive manufacturing companies have also been moving operations overseas since the 1990s.
"That has kind of killed the tool and die industry when it came down to apprenticeship programs," she said. "If you don't have job (workshops), you don't need as many diemakers. ...So, it's really important to keep these trades going. That's what this was all about — promoting women in the industry. Anybody could do anything as long as they put their mind to it."
Contact Nour Rahal: nrahal@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tradeswomen celebrated at Ford Motor Stamping Plant
