A woman in a knit dress with flared sleeves works at an early model desktop computer in the 1970s. Hulton Archive/Getty Images During the early 20th century, women's employment was affected by war and advancements in tech. In the 1960s and 1970s, women expanded their horizons and career opportunities. Vintage photos from the past 100 years show how their roles have changed. From factory floors to corner offices, women's roles in the workplace have undergone many reinventions over the past century. By the 1920s, decades of industrialization had drawn growing numbers of women into the workforce. Then, as men were sent off to war, more women entered the wartime effort in factories and other professions previously dominated by men. Women's equality movements throughout the 1960s and 1970s gave working women more opportunities, and in recent years, the gap between men and women in the workforce has been closing, according to data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. These vintage photos show how women's roles in the workforce have evolved over the last 100 years. In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, more women than ever began to leave the household and go out to work. Women postal workers at a sorting office, circa 1920. FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Jobs commonly held by women included postal clerks, who sorted letters and packages. While it wasn't uncommon for women to work in post offices, very few women actually delivered mail. The US Postal Service reported that in 1920, only 5% of the nation's 943 village carriers were women. As local postal delivery was gradually phased out in favor of larger city delivery, most of the remaining women village carriers either resigned or were transferred to clerk positions. Many women also began working in factories. Operating room of Ladies Rayon Undergarment Factory, 1920. George Rinhart/Corbis/Getty Images The US Department of Labor reported that in 1920, women made up about 20% of the labor force, an increase from previous generations. Many of them were involved in the production and manufacturing of clothing, food products, and tobacco products. Women of color, on the other hand, were largely employed in agriculture and domestic service work for much of the early 20th century. During World War I, women held occupations in domestic and personal service, clerical occupations, and factory work. Woman working in an office, USA, circa 1921. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images Many women took typing courses to secure higher-paying jobs as secretaries or typists in clerical offices rather than working in factories. The Encyclopedia of Chicago reported that working conditions, wages, and hours in clerical work were seen as the best at the time. Clerical work attracted young, literate, mostly white women who would work as typists until they were married, only to be replaced by other young unmarried women when they left their jobs to raise their families. The government also began paying greater attention to women's working conditions. In 1920, Congress established the Women's Bureau. Gertrude Olmstead from the MGM Studios checks the costume design with the dress being made by the costumer. Hulton-Deutsch/Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis/Getty Images As the popularity of silent films began to rise, women also found work behind the scenes on movie sets. The Women Film Pioneers Project wrote that a 1923 edition of "Business Woman" published a list of 29 different jobs that women held in the film industry, apart from actresses. Job positions included those of a typist, secretary to the stars, executive secretary, costume designer, seamstress, telephone operator, hairdresser, script girl, film retoucher, title writer, publicity writer, musician, film editor, director, and producer, among others. Women also held jobs as blacksmiths and worked on vehicles. Female Blacksmith at work in her workshop, circa 1920. Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images However, most occupations were seen solely as a precursor to marriage. Among married white women of both native and immigrant backgrounds, only around 10% were in the workforce, History reported. It was more common for married women of color to hold jobs outside the home, however. Unemployed women during the Great Depression could join "SheSheShe" camps. Several women attend a work camp at Bear Mountain unemployed, homeless, and single women during the Great Depression. Getty Images Inspired by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which only allowed men to join in exchange for free room and board, Eleanor Roosevelt campaigned for so-called "SheSheShe" camps to help women gain employment in environmental conservation, The Corps Network reported. Many families during the Great Depression were able to achieve middle-class status by adding another working member to the household — in many cases, a woman. Women sewing clothes to be sell during the Great Depression, North Platte, Nebraska, November 1937. Hansel Mieth/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Many women during the Great Depression found work as secretaries, teachers, telephone operators, and nurses. Women also earned incomes by sewing clothes in Works Progress Administration (WPA) sewing rooms. The rooms manufactured products such as men's trousers, boys' coveralls, baby clothes, women's dresses, and diapers. In the 1930s, women made 25% less than men for some government jobs. A nurse lighting the pipe of U.S. pilot Harold Ingley, lying on a field hospital bed in Italy, September 1, 1944. Mondadori/Getty Images A 1933 law called the National Industrial Recovery Act established the National Recovery Administration, which oversaw industry codes that set standards including minimum wages and maximum hours. Just over a quarter of the codes set lower minimum wage rates for women than for men. In 1942, during wartime, the War Labor Board ruled that women would be paid the same as male workers who were now away at war. However, the war ended before they could receive equal pay. With no laws to protect female workers from pay inequality, female workers in the 1940s earned around 60% of what their male counterparts made, MarketWatch reported. By 1943, women made up 65% of the US aircraft industry's workforce. Woman working on a Vengeance dive bomber, using a hand drill. Universal History Archive/Getty Images Before the war, women were largely in traditionally "female" fields such as nursing and teaching. After Pearl Harbor, many women entered the armed forces at astonishing rates. In 1943, more than 310,000 women worked in the US aircraft industry, making up 65% of the industry's total workforce, History reported. Before the war began, women made up just 1% of the industry. By 1945, one in every four married women worked in jobs outside the home. Women working in a gas mask facotry, 1940. Thomas D. Mcavoy/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Image During World War II, women assisted in manufacturing wartime necessities like gas masks. Forbes reported that between 1940 and 1945, women's participation in the US workforce increased from 27% to nearly 37%. Women were largely seen as "supplemental" workers in the 1950s, meaning their income was secondary to their husbands'. Waitress serving men breakfast in the 1950s. William Gottlieb/CORBIS/Corbis/Getty Images Even though there were technically more women in the workforce in 1952 than during the war, women were often paid less and given jobs with less upward mobility than their male counterparts. After the war, women returned to stereotypically "feminine" jobs. In some cases, jobs were advertised for women only. A businessman and a secretary in the 1950s. George Marks/Retrofile/Getty Images Many women were forced to give up the jobs they had worked in during wartime, giving them to male soldiers returning home. The most popular jobs for women during the 1950s were secretaries, bank tellers or clerical workers, sales clerks, private household workers, and teachers, The Week reported. Female secretaries in the 1950s gained a reputation for being young and attractive. In fact, a 1959 quiz from a secretarial training program in Waco, Texas, reposted by The Atlantic, asked women if they have what it takes to be a secretary, including "smiling readily and naturally" and being "usually cheerful" among its requirements. The 1950s marked the beginning of the "jet age," and many young women found work as flight attendants, then called "stewardesses." Regular Delta C&S Stewardess Mary Lee Shultz, of Memphis, adjusts Gwynne's cap as they both prepare for flight in the operations room, 1956. Getty Images Flight attendants during the 1950s became symbols of the golden age of flying — when traveling by air was seen as the height of sophistication and glamour. However, with this "glamorous" career also came a host of sexist protocols. Condé Nast Traveler reported that women were not allowed to work as flight attendants after they reached the ages of 32 to 35, while male flight attendants could work well into their 60s. In 1957, Trans World Airli
nes dropped its no-marriage rule for female flight attendants. However, many airlines continued to only hire non-married female flight attendants. While many women joined the workforce, they were nevertheless expected to fulfill their duties at home, in what would be coined "the second shift." An American housewife in 1960 demonstrates the cleaning power of 'Vel' detergent for a TV advert. Hulton Archive/Getty Images After women returned home from their secretarial or office jobs, they had another job to do: caring for the children, doing the housekeeping, and, of course, putting a hot dinner in front of their husbands. This became known as the "second shift." If women didn't hold office or other jobs during the day, they were relegated to being "housewives." In the 1950s and 1960s, women found creative ways to make their own incomes from their homes. Tupperware party scene, 1960. Science & Society Picture Library/SSPL/Getty Images Many suburban women began selling Tupperware out of their own homes in what became known as "Tupperware parties." "Tupperware ... took those moms out of the kitchen where they were 'supposed to be' and let them enter the workforce, and let them have something outside the home," Lorna Boyd, whose mother Sylvia was an at-home Tupperware seller in the 1960s, told the Smithsonian Institution. Women were also making history in their careers. American broadcast journalist Barbara Walters eats a sandwich as she works at her desk, New York, New York, 1966. Rowland Scherman/Getty Images In the 1960s, Barbara Walters was a broadcast journalist working in New York City. In 1976, she would become the first woman to anchor a nightly newscast, Variety reported. Many other women were also joining the journalism field as coverage of the Vietnam War became increasingly widespread. While technology-based and other computer programming jobs may now be dominated by men, they were considered "women's work" in the 1960s. Skilled women weave hair-like wires and tiny metallic cores into memory at the Ampex computer products devision circa 1960. Authenticated News/Archive Photos/Getty Images Smithsonian Magazine reported that "computer girls" became a term for "savvy young women" pursuing careers in computer programming. Computer programming was seen as "easy" work similar to typing or filing, so many women ended up building the field that would come to be known as software development. From the '40s to the '60s, women played a major role in the development of computer programming. A woman working on a Honeywell tape drive computer, circa 1969. Underwood Archives/Getty Images Women were among the earliest computer programmers in the US, working on projects including the ENIAC computer during World War II, but programming was often treated as routine work. "Women were seen as an easy, tractable labor force for jobs that were critical and yet simultaneously devalued," technology historian Marie Hicks said in her book "Programmed Inequality," which detailed a similar phenomenon in Britain, The Guardian reported. But as computing became more prestigious and lucrative, the field became increasingly male-dominated. By the mid-1980s, the share of computer science bachelor's degrees earned by women in the US had begun to decline. In the 1960s, multiple pieces of legislation were passed to protect women in the workplace from discrimination. An equal pay for women demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London, 1969. Stan Meagher/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Title VII was added to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, protecting workers from employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In 1963, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed in order to protect men and women who perform "substantially equal work in the same establishment" from sex-based wage discrimination. These measures were especially beneficial to women of color. Up until the 1970s, women of color could be openly discriminated against in the hiring process and were often assigned to providing "domestic service work" to white families, The Economic Policy Institute reported. During the 1970s, computing work gained more prestige as the industry realized how valuable computers would become. A woman in a knit dress with flared sleeves works at an early model desktop computer made by Servus, 1970s. Hulton Archive/Getty Images It meant women were no longer welcome in many computer programming offices. "They weren't going to put women workers – seen as low-level drones – in charge of computers," Hicks told The Guardian. Female computer workers, or "computer girls," were gradually phased out and replaced with men, who received higher salaries and more prestigious job titles. By the 1970s, many women were still fighting for better workplace conditions, equal pay, and more job opportunities. A businesswoman in the 1970s. H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images The Atlantic reported that from 1972 to 1985, the number of women working "professional" jobs increased from 44% to 49%. The number of women working "management" jobs nearly doubled, rising from 20% to 36%. However, in 1970, women still did not earn equal wages to men holding the same positions. In the 1970s, education became more important than ever for securing a well-paying job. Nurses and doctors at Pelham Bay General Hospital examine a patient's X-ray in 1975. Eric Bard/Corbis/Getty Images After measures were passed that prevented universities and institutions from discriminating against students on the basis of sex, more women were admitted into medical school than in past generations, according to a study published by the British Medical Bulletin. Other strides were made for women in the late 1970s. In 1978, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed as an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited pregnancy-based employment discrimination. Women in the workforce in the 1980s continued to make strides, but there was still a way to go. Marilyn Neckes, a former TV producer who has changed career to stockbroker, New York City, USA, May 1984. Barbara Alper/Getty Images The Atlantic reported that, in 1985, half of all college graduates were women. However, only 41% of women between the ages of 25 and 44 held full-time year-round jobs. Even in the mid-1980s, women themselves saw their own careers as inferior to their husbands'. The Atlantic also cited a 1985 Roper survey that showed only 10% of women said that a husband should turn down a "very good job" in another city "so the wife can continue her job." However, women of the 1980s made history in their fields. Dr. Mae Jemison was among 15 new astronauts named by NASA and became the first Black female shuttle flyer. Dr. Mae Jemison is among 15 new astronauts in 1987 named by NASA and the first black female shuttle flyer. Getty Images In 1984, at the Democratic National Convention held in San Francisco's Moscone Center, Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman nominated as vice president by a major political party. Women were encouraged to "do it all" — meaning, hold a successful job as well as maintain a happy and healthy marriage and raise children. In the 1990s, women overwhelmingly began to be employed in offices and earned higher salaries than before. CDC Employee working at computer in 1995. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images Computers became increasingly prevalent, reducing the need for secretaries, bank tellers, and retail workers. Some women were also postponing marriage and children until later in life. Two businesswomen view the latest stock prices on the Nasdaq Wall in 1997. James Leynse/Corbis/Getty Images For most earlier decades, women would be married between the ages of 20 and 22, Time reported. The median age for women to get married rose to 24 in 1990, and by 1997, it was 25. In 1995, nearly half of all women surveyed for a report by the National Center for Education Statistics said they earned half or more of their total family income. In recent years, women have held more jobs than men in the US. Wally Santana/AP Images Fortune reported that at the start of 2020, 109,000 more women were working than men, and women in the US made up 50.4% of the labor force. Sectors that traditionally hire women, like healthcare and education, were growing, and other industries previously dominated by men were also hiring more women than ever before. Forbes reported that 13.8% of mining and logging jobs were held by women, and more women were employed in manufacturing and transportation than in years past. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the women's labor force participation rate to hit a 33-year low, with 2.3 million women in the US leaving the labor force between February 2020 and January 2021. By 2025, however, nearly half of all US employees were women, some of whom chose to start their own businesses and chose entrepreneurship over traditional careers. Between July 2025 and July 2026, women's labor-force participation fell from 57.6% to 56.4%. Read the original article on Business Insider