Slacks and Calluses by Constance Bowman Reid tells a true story of two young teachers and their experiences from inside the war efforts of the 1940s. Constance Bowman, an English teacher, and Clara Marie Allen, an art teacher, went to work at Consolidation on the swing shift on a B-12 production line. On their summer vacation, Bowman and Allen learned not only the idea of true physical labor by how much effort was put into every individual Liberator, but they also witnessed a change in the way they, as women, were viewed by society. In working on the production line, the two teachers were able to see the demand for women involvement while gaining a sense of patriotism and personally experiencing the change in the status of women. According
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The two teachers were impressed with themselves and the number of Liberators they were able to put their energy in to building. Bowman said, “…anybody who thought we had been motivated by anything but patriotism in its purest form could just look at our pay-checks after the government got through with them” (Bowman Reid, 173). Bowman and Reid had spent their summer diligently working in an unfeminine job according to the standards of 1943. “After a summer on the production line we looked at a liberator the way you gaze in awe at a great tapestry when the note under it say it took a hundred women twenty years to make it” (Bowman Reid, 174). They took great pride in learning the tools and tricks from the production line and took great pride in surviving the summer. The personal insight, through Bowman and Allen’s war job experience, explains the neglected war effort and illustrates the people who were involved in the time period where women were changing the way their roles and efforts had an impact on society. This first-hand look at war workers and the production of bombers gives the two teachers a sense of allegiance because of their contribution. Slacks and Calluses brought a new facet to the standards of women in the 1940s that led women to the way they are viewed
The two teachers were impressed with themselves and the number of Liberators they were able to put their energy in to building. Bowman said, “…anybody who thought we had been motivated by anything but patriotism in its purest form could just look at our pay-checks after the government got through with them” (Bowman Reid, 173). Bowman and Reid had spent their summer diligently working in an unfeminine job according to the standards of 1943. “After a summer on the production line we looked at a liberator the way you gaze in awe at a great tapestry when the note under it say it took a hundred women twenty years to make it” (Bowman Reid, 174). They took great pride in learning the tools and tricks from the production line and took great pride in surviving the summer. The personal insight, through Bowman and Allen’s war job experience, explains the neglected war effort and illustrates the people who were involved in the time period where women were changing the way their roles and efforts had an impact on society. This first-hand look at war workers and the production of bombers gives the two teachers a sense of allegiance because of their contribution. Slacks and Calluses brought a new facet to the standards of women in the 1940s that led women to the way they are viewed