The Girls of Atomic City

With so many men away fighting in the war, there is an exponential expansion of women’s roles in the workforce, including at CEW. In part, this reflects the need for extra personnel and “the era of Rosie the Riveter” (30) when societal attitudes to women’s work and contribution are changing rapidly. However, there is also another factor: The Project particularly focuses on employing young educated women from rural backgrounds because they are believed to be manageable. As such, the Project’s employment of young women reflects both a reinforcing of gender roles in the suggestion that women are more compliant and obedient and a challenge to them. It appears to be an effective choice for the Project because Ernest Lawrence, head of the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, soon learns that the “high school girls they had pulled from rural Tennessee to operate his calutrons in Y-12 [are] doing better than his own team of scientists” (109).Women at the project experience a sense of personal growth through their own sense of , the women at the project Women like Colleen enjoys how her new responsibilities allow her to dress like her male coworkers, and Celia gains a new financial independence.

Oak Ridgers were motivated to work at CEW because they are offered better pay for comparable and the jobs include other benefits like on-site housing and facilities. Additional motivations tap into workers’ sense of purpose and duty and their desire to contribute to the war effort. Dot considers that “‘Somewhere in East Tennessee’ [is] more than a job” because it gives her “a way to help end the war that had taken [her brother] Shorty from her” (71). However, workers have to deal with the consequences of their desire to end the war when they realize the true scale of devastation that the bombs wreak once they are detonated.

Once the workers of CEW hear that the bomb has been dropped, they know “they had played a part in what appeared to be a key turning point in the war, one that might end it for good” (261). Initial feelings are of relief and celebration, however, many eventually to process the human cost of their work. Dot wonders how she can “feel both good and bad about something at the same time, pride and guilt and joy and relief and shame” (287) and Rosemary considers that “anybody who had been working in Oak Ridge and had contributed to the development of something so tragic, so devastating, had to ask themselves the question whether it was the right thing to do” (278).