1. Women Scientists and Their Work on the Manhattan Project in New Mexico
Ruth Howes
NRAO
November 3, 2017 a

4. The Labor Shortage in 1943
The Army needed 200,000 men for the D-Day invasion
The average age of Gls topped 25 years
The Defense Department needed 315 physicists for wartime research projects

7. Growth of the Manhattan Project
November 1941 :
16 projects at universities and industries
budget: $300,000
personnel: 200 or fewer
August 1945:
3 major sites plus outposts around the country
budget: $2.2 billion expended
personnel: 130,000

8. Nuclear Fission
Before After

9. Chain Reaction
Generations:

10. Supercritical Chain Reaction
Generations

12. Role of Women: The Numbers
at Hanford: 9% of the workforce of 51,000 was female
at Los Alamos:
September 1943: 60 women worked in the Tech area
October 1944: 30% of the labor force or 195 people were female
20 scientists
50 technicians
15 nurses
25 teachers
70 secretaries or clerks
15 other
25 worked on chemistry and metallurgy
20 worked on bomb engineering
16 worked on theoretical physics
4 worked on experimental physics
8 worked on ordnance
4 worked on explosives
2 worked with Fermi's division on reactors etc.
The numbers don't add since the job titles are not provided with the data on areas
so some may have worked as clerks or secretaries.
Based on private communication from Paul Henriksen, not included in Critical Assembly and source not sited

14. Maternity ward at Oak Ridge circa 1945

15. “The General’s in a stew
He trusted you and you
He thought you’d be scientific
Instead you’re just prolific
And what is he to do?”

16. Diz Graves, ID badge

17. Diz Graves shows her daughter a $40,000 sphere of pure gold.

20. Elda Anderson, ID badge

23. 1944 IBM calculating machines: Naomi Livesay (I think) with Gis

25. Eleanor Ewing with Jumbo

26. WACs drill at Los Alamos, 1945

28. Radiation handling at Los Alamos by Norma Gross and her boss, Gerhard Friedlander, move a kilocurie source of radiolanthanum in Bayo Canyon.

29. Joan Hinton, Enrico Fermi and Robert Carter at Los Alamos

31. Hinton and Engst

32. Ernest Engst and kids and the dairy

33. Name: Little Boy Type: Uranium gun-type fission Weight: 9,700lb (4400 kg) Length: 10 ft, 6 in (3.2m) Diameter: 29 in (0.737m) Explosive Yield: 15,000 tons of TNT
Name: Fat Man Type: Plutonium fission Weight: 10,000lb (4535 kg) Length: 10 ft, 8 in (3.25 m) Diameter: 5 ft (1.52 m) Explosive Yield: 21,000 tons of TNT

35. TWO MYTHS DISPROVED BY NEW MEXICO WOMEN WHO WORKED ON THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
1) Women can’t do science.
2) women scientists are not REAL Women.

36. THIS STORY DEMONSTRATES
1. women can do science!!!!
2. women scientists do marry and have babies!!!

37. Marie Sklodowska Curie: born November 7, 1867