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19 Photos Of Women Working, 100 Years Ago

What 'Women's Work' Looked Like 100 Years Ago
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By 

Deputy Editor, HuffPost Women

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Everything that women's work encompasses today, we owe to the women of the past.

One hundred years ago, American women were proving that "women's work" happens outside of the home, too. During World War I, women made strides into the workforce showing that "the weaker sex" did just as well in traditionally masculine arenas like munitions factories, construction and farming. Women continued to contribute to the economy in their jobs at garment factories, mills, telephone switchboards and offices even after the war effort ended.

As Women's History Month draws to a close, here are 19 incredible photos of women at work -- a century ago.

1
Lewis W. Hine/Buyenlarge/Getty Images
A young woman works as a warper on a power loom at the King Philip Mills, Fall River, Massachusetts, 1916.
2
Underwood Archives/Getty Images
Women workers in a garment factory, Vermont, circa 1915.
3
Cincinnati Museum Center/Getty Images
A group of women focus their attention on their work while employed by the Gibson Art Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, ca.1910s.
4
J. R. Schmidt/Paul Thompson/FPG/Getty Images
Women operate the new stretching machine for surgical dressing at the Red Cross headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1915. The machine, which was invented by Milton Griffith, can stretch 28 bolts of gauze in one day.
5
Paul Thompson/FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A group of chorus girls at the annual charity reception and dance held by the Ladies' Auxiliary of St Vincent's Hospital at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, circa 1915. From left to right, Priscilla Mitchell, Dorothy Adrian, Temploe Joyner, Dorothy Kane, Dorothy Scully, Kathleen Kevin, Mary Lembeck, Helen McManus and Ruth Thompson.
6
FPG/Getty Images
A woman working in a munitions factory during World War One, aiding the war effort whilst the men are away, USA, circa 1914-1918.
7
Lewis W. Hine/Buyenlarge/Getty Images
A young woman works as a harness maker at the American Linen Company, in Fall River, MA, 1916.
8
Lewis W. Hine/Buyenlarge/Getty Images
A thirteen-year-old girl (identified only as Mary) works with her aunt as they make flowers in a tenement room, New York, New York, 1911.
9
PhotoQuest/Getty Images
View of women factory workers seated at their work stations while operating machines to polish lenses, during the early twentieth century.
10
MPI/Getty Images
29th May 1919: Women rivet heaters and passers on ship construction work in the Navy Yard at Puget Sound, Seattle, Washington.
11
Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Female American college students working on a farm, as replacements for men called up to the military in World War I, USA, May 1918.
12
PhotoQuest/Getty Images
Women of the Sarah Caswell Angell chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, engage in war work activities to assist the Allied cause during World War I, 1918. During their sessions, they knit, make hospital garments, sew for French children, and make aviators' vests.
13
Paul Thompson/FPG/Getty Images
A woman machine operator working with a cutting tool at an aircraft factory during World War 1.
14
Paul Thompson/FPG/Getty Images
Working women aiding the war effort in World War One; Agnes Kelley, Blanche Chegnon, Marie Provencher, Nina Hosington and Mary Tully, all from Lowell, Massachusetts, 1917.
15
FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A woman working in an American aircraft factory, 1917.
16
FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
'Farmerettes' help collect funds to supply milk for babies in France during World War I, circa 1918. From left to right, Mable Standley, Helen Gates, Mary Kelly, Anna Robinson, Lottie Vernon and Florence Martin.
17
Bain News Service/Buyenlarge/Getty Images
A member of the Women's Land Army of America plows a field, with a plow drawn by two horses, California, 1917.
18
Vintage Images/ Getty Images
Women out picking cotton, USA, circa 1910.
19
Bain News Service/Buyenlarge/Getty Images
Students at Barnard College participate in a botany class at the college's greenhouse, ca 1915.

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Before You Go

39 Stunning Images Celebrating Women's Work Around The World
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A Pakistani woman arranges bricks as she works at a brick factory on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, March 8, 2010. (Muhammed Muheisen/AP)
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Dancer performs on a float during Viradouro samba school parade at the sambodrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Feb. 28, 2006. (Andre Penner/AP)
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Nepalese women shelter under umbrellas as they work to remove weed from a paddy field in Chitwan, about 44 miles southwest of Katmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Aug.1, 2010. (/APGemunu Amarasinghe/AP)
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A North Korean woman works at the Kim Jong Suk Pyongyang textile factory, Thursday, July 31, 2014, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Wong Maye-E/AP)
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In this Wednesday, March, 5, 2014 photo, Afghan women boxers practice at the Kabul stadium boxing club. (Massoud Hossaini/AP)
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An Indian female laborer works at a brick factory in Allahabad on March 7, 2013. (Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pallaqueras, female gold miners, search for gold on a load of waste rock from the gold mines on Aug. 4 2012 in La Rinconada, Peru. (Jan Sochor/Latincontent/Getty Images)
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A Bedouin woman of the Al-Qiyaan tribe stands while working outside her house on Dec. 5, 2013 At the Bedouin village of Umm Al-Hiran, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
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A woman working on her wooden weaving loom in the countryside of Bhutan. (Andrew Eio/Getty Images)
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Students in the nutrition technology department working on acid base volumetric analysis at the Beuth technical college on Oct. 31, 2013 in Berlin, Germany. (Thomas Koehler/Photothek via Getty Images)
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A female engineer hand-builds a M157 5.5L V8 bi-turbo engine at the Mercedes-AMG engine production factory in Affalterbach, Germany. (Tim Graham/Getty Images)
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An Akha Hilltribe woman picks Oolong #17 tea leaves during a harvest at the Suwirun Tea farm in the hills outside of Chaing Rai Nov. 11, 2012 in Chiang Rai, Thailand. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
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Portrait of American artist and illustrator Tara McPherson in her studio in New York, on Aug. 24, 2013. (Joby Sessions/Computer Arts Magazine/Getty Images)
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A Cuban woman works in the H. Upmann cigar factory on Feb. 26, 2015 in Havana, Cuba. (Sven Creutzmann/Mambo Photo/Getty Images)
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Liu Shujian, a 90-year-old lady, continues her electro welding work at Wanshousi Street on Dec. 5, 2014 in Shenyang, Liaoning province of China. (ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)
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A woman works at a plant of porcelain manufacturing society JL Coquet in Saint-Leonard-de-Noblat near Limoges, France on July 5, 2013. (MEHDI FEDOUACH/AFP/Getty Images)
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Batik craftswomen apply melted wax to fine cotton textiles to produce characteristic figurative designs at a workshop in Solo city in Central Java, Indonesia on June 29, 2009. (ROMEO GACAD/AFP/Getty Images)
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Indian actress Vemi Rephung from Nagaland (C) takes a break during the shooting of a song sequence on the sets of the forthcoming Bollywood movie - "Go Goa Gone" at Filmcity in Mumbai on April 8, 2013. (INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images)
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Women working in a ginger and spice factory, selecting ginger roots in the Fort Cochin area on Nov. 23, 2011 in Cochin, Kerala, India. (EyesWideOpen/Getty Images)
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Palestinian woman Amal Abu-Rqayiq works at her small carpentry work-shop in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza City, Gaza on March 8, 2014. Amal is a 40-year-old divorcee and working in a male-dominated profession to help raise a daughter with special needs. (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
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A young African woman at work in the fields, watering crops just outside Bangui pictured on March 13, 2014 near Bangui, Central African Republic. (Thomas Koehler/Photothek/Getty Images)
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Workers handle rubber sheets as they pass through a rubber sheet washing machine at the Thai Hua Rubber Pcl factory in Samnuktong, Rayong province, Thailand, on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014. (Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
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An employee of the Lemaitre Demeestere company works with a linen loom on April 16, 2013 in Halluin, northern France. (PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images)
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Women taking part in a cash for work program run by the French non-governmental organization Action Against Hunger to build dikes to hold water pose on March 21, 2012 near the village of Palboa, 300 kms northeast of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. (RAPHAEL DE BENGY/AFP/Getty Images)
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Day laborers carry bananas during a harvest in a field in the district of Burhanpur, Madhya Pradesh, India, on Friday, Oct. 19, 2012. (Sanjit Das/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
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Cristina Isidro Salazar (left) and Felicitas Contreras Santiago repair their truck so they can deliver wood to construction sites around town on Oct. 30, 2006 in the town of San Pablo Huixtepec, Mexico. (Dana Romanoff/Getty Images)
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An Indian woman works collecting salt in the salt pans near Dhrangadhra, Gujarat. (Malcolm Chapman/Getty Images)
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Mahboubeh Khoshsolat, one of the only women's fire and rescue units in the Middle East, slides down the fire pole at Fire Station No. 9 Oct. 5, 2005 in the city of Karaj, west of the Iranian capital Tehran. (Scott Peterson/Getty Images)
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Women pose on a shea butter production line for the French cosmetics company L'Occitane in Leo, south-central Burkina Faso, on Jan. 24, 2014. (LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Images)
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Photo taken on January 22, 2014, shows women working on a carpet in a tiny factory in Kostandovo, a small village in Bulgaria's southern Rhodope mountains. (DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP/Getty Images)
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A Pakistani woman potter gives the final touches to earthen pots at a workshop on the outskirts of Lahore on June 9, 2011. (Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)
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A picture taken on July 8, 2013 shows a woman working on a wind turbine at a plant of Gamesa in the Northern Spanish village of Aoiz, Navarra province. (RAFA RIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)
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An Iraqi woman works to collect salt from a water course near Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq. Wednesday, March 25, 2009. (Alaa al-Marjani/AP)
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Bedouin shop owner, Farawna Nasra Abu Adjin, 50, fashions a pillow by hand in her workshop started with a micro-finance loan from the Sawa Group, in the southern Israeli Bedouin city of Rahat on Aug. 6, 2008 (credit:Getty)
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This picture taken on January 22, 2014 shows women working on a carpet in a tiny factory in Kostandovo, a small village in Bulgaria's southern Rhodope mountains. (DIMITAR DILKOFF via Getty Images) (credit:DIMITAR DILKOFF via Getty Images)
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First woman taxi driver of Afghanistan Sara Bahai works for the women who aren't allowed to use taxis without their first degree men relatives. Balkh, Afghanistan, August 23, 2014. (Photo by Sayed Khodaberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) (credit:Sayed Khodaberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
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