More and more women work on aircraft is a 1942 nine-photograph poster of the U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau, sold by the Superintendent of Documents for 10 cents. Captions show women riveting, welding, wiring and sewing, and the sheet says women should get the same rates as men for the same jobs (NAID 515021).
What the sheet prints
This is a photo-essay on a single sheet. Nine photographs, each with its own caption, show women in aircraft plants: a pair working rivets, a welder, a woman fitting wiring, one captioned as working "down and under," and sewing fabric on the tail of a bomber. The Department of Labor seal sits at the top beside the bureau's name.
MORE AND MORE WOMEN WORK ON AIRCRAFT
"TRAIN THE WOMEN TO HELP MAKE PLANES, UNCLE SAM"—THE WOMEN'S BUREAU URGES
WOMEN SHOULD BE PAID THE SAME RATES AS MEN WHEN THEIR JOBS ARE THE SAME
TEAMWORK—ONE GIRL BUCKS THE RIVETS, ANOTHER DRIVES THEM IN
A WELDER—TRAINING MAKES WOMEN SKILLED WORKERS
KEEP 'EM SEWING—FANCY WORK ON A BOMBER'S TAIL
THEY HAVE A GOOD TIME DOING A GOOD JOB
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C., Price 10 cents
Who issued it
The Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor issued the sheet, and the Government Printing Office printed it in 1942. It was not given away: the foot line offers it for sale at ten cents through the Superintendent of Documents. The photographers are not named.
How to read it
This sheet makes three practical points. It asks the government to train women. It says women should be paid at men's rates when they do the same job. And it shows, in nine pictures, the trades women were already doing.
The second line is the striking one. A federal bureau put an equal-pay standard on a printed sheet and sold it to the public. That is a policy argument, made openly, by the office that signed it. A reader can agree or disagree; the poster gives enough to argue with.
Some captions carry the period's tone. "Girl," "fancy work," and "they have a good time doing a good job" soften the labor into something pleasant. Covering a bomber's tail is production work, whatever the caption calls it. The sheet is earnest about pay and training and still a little patronizing about the women doing it.
Compare the War Manpower Commission's Women in the War, which makes the case without mentioning wages, and We Can Do It!. The Office of War Information index lists other home-front posters. The Women's Bureau was one office among many in wartime Washington, and the Roosevelt administration essay maps the others, from the Office of War Information to the Office of Censorship.
Sources
- FRAME object record, More and more women work on aircraft, 1942. U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-1367, NAID 515021, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026.
