Episode Details

Forget Rosie the Riveter’s flex. In this episode of The Persistence, host Angélica Cordero flips the script on the usual WWII girl-power narrative and digs into the real story of the women who didn’t just roll up their sleeves—they reprogrammed the whole damn machine. From scrubbing floors and working fields to leading strikes, staffing factories, and forcing entire industries to modernize, these women fought for fair pay, safety, dignity, and a future where they mattered. Angélica takes you through their journey with wit, insight, and zero sugar-coating, spotlighting the Black, Brown, and working-class women whose stories rarely make the textbooks. And when the war ended? They didn’t quietly fade into the background—they left a legacy that still fuels modern fights for workplace justice. If you’ve ever been told to “know your place,” this one’s for you.

This episode was written by and produced by Angélica Cordero, with a little help from ChatGPT.

Our theme song is Don’t Kid Yourself Baby by Fold, used with their blessings. Podcast artwork for The Persistence features Mexican-American activist Jovita Idar and was created by Tamra Collins of Sunroot Studio.

Get into the groove with our Spotify playlist of episode title references!

Resources For Fellow Wascally Wabbits

Books

Cannery Women, Cannery Lives: Mexican Women, Unionization, and the California Food Processing Industry, 1930-1950 by Vicki L. Ruiz

Common Sense and a Little Fire: Women and Working-class Politics in the United States, 1900-1965 by Annelise Orleck

Feminism Unfinished: A Short, Surprising History of American Women's Movements by Dorothy Sue Cobble, Linda Gordon, Astrid Henry

Feminism in the labor movement : women and the United Auto Workers, 1935-1975 by Nancy Felice Gabin

From Coveralls to Zoot Suit: The Lives of Mexican American Women on the World War II Home Front by Elizabeth Escobedo

Making War, Making Women: Femininity and Duty on the American Home Front, 1941-1945 by Melissa A. McEuen

Manipulating Images World War II Mobilization of Women through Magazine Advertising by Tawnya J. Adkins Covert

No Ordinary Time - Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Our Mother’s War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II by Emily Yellin

The American Woman: Her Changing Social, Economic, and Political Roles, 192