Women Winding Motor Armatures -1904

Women workers at the Westinghouse Works in East Pittsburgh in 1904 are winding wire for electric motors being manufactured. Two young men push spools of this wire down the aisle. Supervisors, male and female, walk down the aisle and observe the women's work, stopping for a while at one woman's station. The women did this task for all types of electric motors including those used on streetcars. This factory was not unionized at the time. There were mass strikes in 1913 and 1916 but it wasn't until the 1930s that this factory was unionized by the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE). From Library of Congress digital collection.