American Bridge Company factory where Joseph Rubino Jr. worked. 

Steel strike in Gary, Indiana.

A city being named after the chairman of the board of U.S. Steel, Elbert H. Gary, created the history intertwined with the rise and fall of the steel industry. The Great Depression brought the unionization of Steel Industries and in 1935 and 1939, the steel workers benefited by a national 27% raise in wages. Steel production increased during World War II and the wave of prosperity continued for nearly two decades. The peak of steel production was in 1953 at more than 35 million tons. The steel industry is still important in Gary's economy, although it is not the world leader it once was. 

Women welders, Gary, Indiana 1943 

The World War II icon, "Rosie the Riveter," is so natural to the American image that it is hard to remember a time the famous feminist symbol did not exist. When millions of men went to war in the early 1940s, American women entered the labor force to replace them. A wide variety of the archetype on which Rosie was based were invented using different media sources like songs, illustrations, and photographs. Women began working traditionally male factory jobs as welders, lathe operators, machinists, and riveters.  Many working women were recruited from Gary and East Chicago and there were many minorities involved. Women steel workers were accepted by the managements and the men they worked with. This revolutionary flood of women workers showed that even in a tough crisis such as World War II, no job is too hard for American women.