A Gold Medal for America's Rosies, the Women on the Home Front

Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, a young woman, Marian Sousa, moved to California to care for her sister’s children while her sister worked as a welder in a Bay Area shipyard. Just a year later, Marian herself joined the wartime workforce, assisting with drafting blueprints and revising outdated designs for troop transports. She worked alongside maritime inspectors, examining ships she had helped design. Marian was one of the millions of women who entered the workforce during World War II. Today, at the age of 98, Marian and a group of other women known as Rosies received the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of their efforts. Marian expressed surprise at the recognition, as she had never expected it and saw her work as simply contributing to the country’s cause and making some money on the side.