WomenArts Banner
Donate WomenArts Blog WomenArts Facebook Page
Search Artists | Create New Profile | My Account | Help  
 

Northwest Women's History Project
Good Work Sister!
Email Send an email to this Artist >>
Website http://www.goodworksister.org >> This web site features photos of the artist's work.

Mission Statement: The Northwest Women's History Project has created a 20 minute documentary which tells the stories of women who went to work in the shipyards of Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington between 1942-45. Good Work Sister! Women Shipyard Workers of World War II: An Oral History is now available through our website as a DVD.

The show illustrates the problems and successes that women workers had in their own words, and describes the context in which skilled shipbuilding jobs were first opened and then later closed to women.

During World War II, American women were actively recruited into defense production jobs for the war effort. They were encouraged to enter skilled trades that, in the past, had been exclusive to men. Good Work Sister! portrays this eventful period in women's economic and social history.
Current Work
Good Work Sister! was originally produced as a slide show in 1982. Most of the 136 images in the show are reproductions of historic photographs. Some are contemporary portraits of the women as they tell their stories.

Period music and narrative segments are key elements of this DVD production. Study guide and script are included. In 2006 we digitized the production and improved the technical quality of the sound and visuals and added movement for the DVD which is available at www.goodworksister.org.
History
The Northwest History Project began in 1978 in a member's living room. Amy Kesselman, one of our founding members had previously taught a class in women's oral history, and Madeline Moore, another founding member, had been an eager student. At that first meeting, Amy described the many students in her women's history class who, as part of the assignment to write about their mothers and grandmothers, had brought in stories of women who worked in the shipyards during WWII.

The process of interviewing people to document events, movements and everyday lives of people offers an alternative approach for many of us who had studied more traditional history.

Portland, with its history of shipbuilding during World War II, provided fertile ground for an oral history project that would give insights into what life was like for the thousands of women who came here to work during that time. We decided we wanted to learn first hand what that was like for those women. The group also realized that time was running out, as many of the women were in their seventies, eighties and nineties.
View Review Excerpts
Contact
PO Box 5692
Portland, OR
97228
Artist Location
Portland, OR
General Themes
History, Work/Business/Labor, Feminism/Gender Issues
Last updated on September 7th, 2006

WomenArts • 3739 Balboa Street #181, San Francisco, CA 94121 •  Contact Us>>

© WomenArts 2011 unless noted otherwise. All rights reserved.
Please be sure to credit WomenArts if you publish information from our website.
WomenArts is the new name of The Fund for Women Artists,
a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.