APS March Meeting 2014
Volume 59, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 3–7, 2014;
Denver, Colorado
Session B38: Invited Session: Women and the Manhattan Project
11:15 AM–2:15 PM,
Monday, March 3, 2014
Room: 709/711
Chair: Margaret Murnane, University of Colorado Boulder
Abstract ID: BAPS.2014.MAR.B38.2
Abstract: B38.00002 : Women and the Hanford Site
11:51 AM–12:27 PM
Preview Abstract
Abstract
Author:
Michele Gerber
(Gerber Group Consulting)
When we study the technical and scientific history of the Manhattan Project,
women's history is sometimes left out. At Hanford, a Site whose past is rich
with hard science and heavy construction, it is doubly easy to leave out
women's history. After all, at the World War II Hanford Engineer Works --
the earliest name for the Hanford Site -- only nine percent of the employees
were women. None of them were involved in construction, and only one woman
was actually involved in the physics and operations of a major facility --
Dr. Leona Woods Marshall. She was a physicist present at the startup of
B-Reactor, the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor -- now a National
Historic Landmark. Because her presence was so unique, a special bathroom
had to be built for her in B-Reactor.
At World War II Hanford, only two women were listed among the nearly 200
members of the top supervisory staff of the prime contractor, and only one
regularly attended the staff meetings of the Site commander, Colonel
Franklin Matthias. Overall, women comprised less than one percent of the
managerial and supervisory staff of the Hanford Engineer Works, most of them
were in nursing or on the Recreation Office staff. Almost all of the
professional women at Hanford were nurses, and most of the other women of
the Hanford Engineer Works were secretaries, clerks, food-service workers,
laboratory technicians, messengers, barracks workers, and other support
service employees. The one World War II recruiting film made to attract
women workers to the Site, that has survived in Site archives, is entitled
``A Day in the Life of a Typical Hanford Girl.''
These historical facts are not mentioned to criticize the past -- for it is
never wise to apply the standards of one era to another. The Hanford
Engineer Works was a 1940s organization, and it functioned by the standards
of the 1940s. Just as we cannot criticize the use of asbestos in
constructing Hanford (although we may wish they hadn't used so much of it),
we cannot criticize the employment realities or the social practices of
those days. If we can simply understand the past, then maybe we can learn
from it.
This presentation will highlight the success stories of many of Hanford's
women. About 4,000 women came to the gargantuan, remote desert location,
most of them young and away from home for the first time. Almost all of them
were coming to a place they had never heard of and undertaking a mission
that could not be explained to them because it was Top Secret.
Faced with decidedly unequal opportunity, they came and took the jobs that
were available, because they felt a personal dedication to the war effort.
They had fun at Hanford, despite living in dusty barracks and eating mess
hall food, and they left their mark on Hanford and its memories in many
ways. Without them, the Site could not have functioned, and the war might
not have been won as soon as it was. They then became the grandmothers of
Richland, Washington, who told their stories to me in the 1990s.
This presentation will show the lives of these women at Hanford during the
Manhattan Project, as they worked to make the best of the situation,
contribute and do their jobs. Their feelings about the work 50 years later
will also be discussed.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2014.MAR.B38.2