Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (49 page)

Maggie Gee, one of two Chinese American women who volunteered
with the Women's Airforce Service Pilots Program (WASP) transporting military aircraft around the country, was very aware of sexism in the
service. She had dropped out of college to work at the Mare Island Naval
Shipyard in north San Francisco Bay, drawing plans for the repair of destroyers and submarines. "What we were doing in the shipyard was important," she said, "but we wanted to do something more, something
more exciting.""' Inspired by Amelia Earhart and the romance of flying, she and two other friends left Mare Island to enroll in flight school.
They later joined the WASP when the age requirement was lowered to
eighteen. Of 25,000 women who applied, only z,ooo were accepted,
and 1,074 graduated and received their wings. "Our flight training was
the same as the men pilots. In primary training, we flew the open cockpit Stearman, which you might see today in airshows doing aerobatics,"
she explained. "In basic training, we flew the 45o-horsepower canopied
BT-113. And in advance training we flew the 65o-horsepower AT-6,
which had radio and retractable landing gear-the kind of plane used
in combat in China."112 By the fall of 1944, half of the ferrying division's fighter pilots were women, and three-fourths of all domestic deliveries were done by Wasps. They also flight-tested damaged airplanes
and flew B-I7s. Thirty-eight woman pilots died because of mechanical
failures, including the only other Chinese American woman, Hazel Ying
Lee of Portland, Oregon. Yet they were known for flying longer hours
and having fewer accidents than their fellow male pilots. Despite their
track record, however, the civilian group of female pilots was forced to
disband a few months before the end of the war because of lobbying on
the part of the male pilots.113 "Even though our numbers were small
and the war was not over, we were sent home," said Maggie. "It was difficult for men to admit that women could fly as well as or better than
men. "114 To add insult to injury, Congress chose not to classify the WASP
as military. While other servicewomen were granted full veteran status
in 11948, Wasps did not receive the same recognition until 1977. Nor
could they find jobs as test pilots with aircraft companies or airlines after the war because of sex discrimination. Still, for Maggie the experience opened up new vistas, transforming her into a more outgoing and
politically aware person. "I returned to Berkeley, California, with a lot
more self-confidence," she said. "My horizon had broadened by the
friendships I made with active women-doers from all parts of the coun-
try."115 Maggie, who never married, went on to become a physicist and
political activist.

Overall, Chinese American women who enlisted in the military found the experience rewarding. Besides giving them the satisfaction of serving their country, it gave them a wider perspective, gained them new
friends, made them more independent and self-confident, allowed them
to travel, and opened up new educational and employment opportunities. "I wouldn't have done half the things I did if I hadn't been in the
service," said Helen Pon Onyett. "Not only did it give me retirement
benefits, but I had a chance to go to school on the G.I. bill and to improve my standing.""' Jessie Lee Yip, who later became a court recorder,
also profited from the G.I. bill, which financed her education in stenography after the war. "It also helped me to grow up, get along with people, and it allowed me to travel," she added. I" Similarly, because of her
two years of service in the WAC, May Lew Gee of San Francisco had a
chance to attend secretarial training school after the war. Her military
experiences also spurred her to become an active member of the Cathay
Post in San Francisco and the American Legion Post in Pacifica, California, as well as to run for public office. May was on the Pacifica Planning Commission for twelve years and has been on the Water Board there
for seventeen years. 118

Maggie Gee (second from left) and fellow members of the Women's Airforce
Service Pilots Program. (Courtesy of Maggie Gee)

Marietta Chong Eng of Hawaii, who was motivated to join the
WAVES because her brother was in the navy, found her one year of service as an occupational therapist at Mare Island more positive than negative:

In reflection, my one year of service as a WAVES ensign was like no other
single year of my life. Wearing the uniform made me feel different. On
the streets of San Francisco or at the navy base, I attracted much attention and maybe admiration. On the negative side, I was in uniform in
New York City crossing a busy street when a young hoodlum pointed at
me in surprise and said, "Look, a Chinaman." I guess it was startling to
see a Chinese in uniform. All in all, though, my navy experience was a
good one.

So proud was she of the uniform that she wore it at her wedding: "I felt
that I could not find a more distinctive wedding outfit than this one,"
she said. 119 Marietta settled in Oakland, where she raised three children
and worked for many years as an occupational therapist with the mentally ill.

Ruth Chan Jang, who left a well-paying job with the State of California to join the Women's Air Corps in 1944, said it was a turning point
in her life. Growing up in Locke, California, she had experienced racial
discrimination and been made to feel ashamed of her Chinese background. The service changed all that. As the only Chinese in her unit, she was treated very well, Ruth emphasized. "I was accepted as one of
them. They never made me feel like you have to hang back and be subservient." While in the service she was captain of the basketball team,
given her first surprise birthday party, and promoted to corporal at the
suggestion of the nurses under whom she worked as a secretary. After
the war, Ruth also took advantage of the G.I. bill and went back to college, eventually becoming a teacher. There can be no better testament
of her positive experience in the service and the patriotism it nurtured
in her than her sincere wish that she and her husband, who also served
in the air force during World War II, will "someday, somehow" be buried
at Arlington National Cemetery.'2°

IN THE LABOR FORCE

The draft and the rapid growth of the war industry resulted in a labor shortage that in turn opened up significant job opportunities for racial minorities and women. With the men away at war and
President Roosevelt's executive order against discriminatory hiring practices in place, their labor became crucial in guaranteeing the output of
war materials and food. Black, Mexican, Chinese, and Native American
workers migrated in large numbers to urban centers and city ports to fill
jobs in the defense industries. At the same time, many women found
work in the manufacturing and clerical sectors, while others were able
to enter business and professional fields previously closed to them.
Wartime propaganda played on the themes of patriotism and glamor to
recruit married women into the labor force. Women were encouraged
to emulate Rosie the Riveter-a muscular but pert, rosy-cheeked young
woman, rivet gun slung across her lap and a powder puff and mirror
peeking out of her coverall pocket-to take a war job and so stand behind the man with the gun. During the war years the female labor force
increased by more than 5o percent overall, and by 140 percent in manufacturing and 46o percent in the major war industries. Married women
exceeded single women in the work force for the first time in U.S. history, and woman workers were at last able to gain access to higher pay,
union representation, and such traditionally male jobs as mechanic, engineer, lumberjack, bus driver, and police dispatcher.'2'

The employment of black women increased by more than one-third
during the war years, but racism and sexism combined to hinder their
wartime gains relative to those of white women and black men. On the
positive side, black women were able to move from farm and domestic labor into better-paying jobs in hotels, restaurants, and defense factories. On the negative side, however, black workers of both sexes were
often subjected to discrimination in hiring, training, job assignment,
wages, and promotion.122 Fanny Christina Hill, who spent forty years
as an aircraft worker after getting her start during World War II, put it
like this: "We always say that Lincoln took the bale off of the Negroes.
I think there is a statue up there in Washington, D.C., where he's lifting something off the Negro. Well, my sister always said that Hitler was
the one that got us out of the white folks' kitchen." As Fanny found
out, though, it was an uphill battle:

Corporal Ruth Chan. (Courtesy of Ruth Chan Jang)

They fought hand, tooth, and nail to get in there. And the first five or
six Negroes who went in there, they were well educated, but they started
them off as janitors. After they once got their foot in the door and was
there for three months-you work for three months before they say you're
hired-then they had to start fighting all over again to get off of that
broom and get something decent. And some of them did.123

Overall, despite the new employment opportunities and higher wages for women during the war years, gender inequality persisted in terms of
pay differences and job mobility, not to mention household and child
care responsibilities. After the war, a Women's Bureau poll showed that
74 percent of women workers wanted to remain in the labor force and
86 percent wanted to retain their current jobs; however, public opinion
prevailed: women, it was generally believed, belonged in the home. As
the men returned from the war front, women were laid off at a rate 75
percent higher than that for men, and the occupational structure returned
to its prewar status.'24

World War II proved to be a job boom for Chinese Americans, who
for the first time found well-paying jobs in factories-building ships, aircraft, and war vehicles and producing ammunition-as well as in private
industries. Nationwide, Chinese American men made substantial gains
in the professional/technical and craft fields, while the women, whose
labor force participation almost tripled between 194o and 1950, made
inroads in the clerical/sales, professional/technical, and proprietor/managerial classifications. The image and roles of Chinese American women
on the home front changed dramatically as government propaganda declared them patriotic daughters who were doing their part for the war
effort:

Daughters of women, who, in the Chinese homeland, lived out their
whole lives in the cloistered seclusion of the enclosed courtyard of the
traditional Chinese home, are today not only seeking careers in their
adopted country but are banded together as volunteers to help win the
war.... In aircraft plants, training camps, and hospital wards, at filter
boards and bond booths, in shipyards, canteens, and Red Cross classes,
these girls ... these Chinese daughters of Uncle Sam ... are doing their
utmost to blend their new-world education and their old-world talents
to hasten the end of the war. 121

As far as Lucy Lee of Houston, Texas, was concerned, World War II
was the most important event in her lifetime in terms of job opportunities. A member of one of the first Chinese families in Houston, she
recalled, "We really were a minority. We were not white; we were not
black. Jobs were not open to us at all." Classmates and children in the
neighborhood constantly called them names. "I couldn't tell you how
many [fist]fights I got into trying to protect my brothers and sisters."
Then came the war. "It changed life around. People started to look at
you a little differently and you could get jobs. With no men around, we
had all kinds of opportunities." 126

Census statistics provide strong evidence that the Chinese in San Fran cisco not only made major economic gains during the war but also were
able to hold on to those gains afterward. Between 194o and 195o, the
numbers of Chinese men in domestic service declined, while they increased in the crafts as well as in the professional, technical, and managerial categories. Chinese women fared even better, moving from their
prewar predominantly operative status to jobs in the clerical and sales
fields. Compared to the prewar years, although the labor market was still
stratified by race and gender, Chinese Americans were able to make some
inroads thanks to the war. In 1940, white men dominated the primary
sector (professional, managerial, clerical, and craft occupations), followed
by white women; Chinese men and women, however, were concentrated
in the secondary sector (operative, service, and manual labor jobs). In
1950, although white men and women still dominated the primary sector, they were joined by a significant number of both Chinese men and
women. Whereas in 1940, 36.3 percent of Chinese male workers and
30.8 percent of Chinese female workers were in the primary labor market, by 1950, those figures had climbed to 49.8 and 59 percent, respectively. In contrast, 75 percent of black male workers and 8z percent
of black female workers remained in the secondary labor market after
the war (see appendix tables i i and 12.).