From segregation to social change, how the Rosie the Riveter era fit into a century's arc - a podcast by Mary Kay Magistad

If the arc of history bends toward justice, the needs of the nation during World War II sped the process — not by design, but by necessity. With men off at war, US shipyards and factories started recruiting women and African Americans, who previously couldn't get such jobs. The story of how the reverberations from that era transformed America are told here by America's oldest park ranger, 94-year-old African-American Betty Soskin, who worked as a 20-year-old clerk in a segregated boiler makers union hall near the shipyards in Richmond, California, during the water. She now tells the story of segregation and social change in that era at Richmond's Rosie the Riveter Museum.

Further episodes of Whose Century Is It?: Ideas, trends & twists shaping the world in the 21st century

Further podcasts by Mary Kay Magistad

Website of Mary Kay Magistad