Richmond is home to a national park all about Rosie the Riveters. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

Not far from where I grew up in the Bay Area women were making history long before I was born. I’m talking about Rosie the Riveters.

These women worked in factories, shipyards and other industries in the United States during World War II while men were in the military. They were known as Rosie the Riveters.

Now there is a national park dedicated to these women.

Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park was dedicated on Oct. 24, 2000, with the visitor education center opening in May 2012 and the permanent exhibits installed two years later.

There are Rosies alive today—most in their last 90s—who on Fridays at the visitors center regale people with their stories.

This waterfront national park in Richmond is one location where women showed up to work jobs that were definitely not traditional women’s work. They were building ships.

Every job required joining one of 18 unions. Even so, they were not equal.

“Like many other unions, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders and Helpers of America resisted admitting African Americans. Instead, it created Local A-36, an auxiliary chapter specifically for African Americans,” a sign reads. “Members did not receive the same benefits or union representation as their white counterparts. However, through their organizing in response to union discrimination, they helped catalyze the local civil rights movement.”

Outside the visitors centers are stories about individual women who were Rosie the Riveters. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

The four Kaiser shipyards in Richmond built more Liberty and Victory ships during the war than anyplace else in the U.S. This was done with about 90,000 people working around the clock.

“The pre-assembly method of fabricating large sections of the ship brought previously excluded populations, such as women and minorities, into the workforce by furnishing many semi-skilled, entry-level jobs,” one exhibit points out.

It was not all rosy, though. Another exhibit said, “Throughout the war, African Americans, women, and others continued to endure discriminatory treatment, and they were the first to be laid off when the war ended.”

While women were needed during the war, they were mostly cast aside when it was over.

“About 3 million American women were dismissed from war jobs by 1946. Many were told that veterans needed their high paying jobs. Some women were glad to focus on raising children,” a panel reads. “However, many women still wanted or needed to work, and had to accept lower paying jobs in fields like nursing, teaching, waitressing, and domestic service. The ‘pay gap’ between women and men doing the same job grew even larger after the war. Over time, these post-war experiences of social and economic inequality inspired women to organize and demand equal rights.”

All these years later and pay equity is still an issue, as well as other types of discrimination.

In addition to the exhibits, short films (20 minutes or so) are shown on a rotating basis. We saw Blossoms and Thorns which is about the local Japanese-Americans who were sent to internment camps. Many were flower growers in Richmond.

One of the exhibits points out that “before the war, Japanese American farmers grew 40 percent of California’s vegetables. The internment of these farmers contributed to wartime food shortages.”

Multiple history lessons are taught at this national park. The displays are interesting and well-done. The neighboring building was a Ford assembly plant that during the war assembled Jeeps and outfitted tanks.

“Auto manufacturing was the largest industry in the U.S. before the war, rolling out over 3 million cars in 1941. After Pearl Harbor, the government prohibited auto plants from making private cars in order to make military vehicles, guns, planes, boats, and specialized engines,” one panel says.

By 1946, all of Richmond’s shipyards were closed.

“Although Kaiser Industries gave up shipbuilding after the war, it profited from its cement, steel, aluminum, and real estate holdings. The company also manufactured automobiles between 1946 and 1955,” an exhibit says. “Perhaps the company’s greatest legacy was Kaiser Permanente, the nonprofit health-care plan that originated in the Richmond shipyards and went on to insure millions of working Americans.”

The visitors center talks about what happened to the workers after the war. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

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Deets:

• Entrance to visitors center is free.
• Open Wednesday-Sunday, 10am-5pm.
• Address: 1414 Harbour Way South, Suite 3000, Richmond