The Northwest Women’s History Project is pleased to announce the release of a new, technically updated DVD version of its 1981 production Good Work Sister! Women Shipyard Workers of World War II: An Oral History.

When it debuted in 1981, Good Work Sister! was well received and reviewed by schools and libraries. It has been re-issued in an improved DVD version including color correction, new cropping, zooms and other enhanced visual effects and an improved sound track. The study guide has also been updated to include contemporary statistics, additional bibliography and website resources. Suitable for high school and college classroom use.

This 20 minute media production tells the stories of women who went to work in the shipyards of Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, between 1942-45.These women entered a world that had previously been closed to them, learned trades that had been exclusively male, coped with the double day of shipyard and domestic work, dealt with the attitudes of male workers, were provided with 24-hour daycare for their children, and were summarily laid off at the end of the war.

The 136 images in the show include reproductions of historic photographs and contemporary portraits of the women as they tell their stories. Period music and narrative segments weave the stories together and describe the context in which skilled shipbuilding jobs were first opened and then, at the end of the war, closed to women.

Good Work Sister! was produced by the Northwest Women’s History Project, a grassroots group of women who interviewed former shipyard workers and worked collectively for over two years to create the show.