Hiring women on the railroads, where labor shortages were common, was often a necessity. During the first and second world wars, there were often more jobs than workers. In 1918, for example, when men enlisted in the armed forces to fight in World War I, the railroad hired women as substitute workers. During the war, the number of women working on the railroad increased 250 percent to 100,000.1

Most women held clerical positions, working as clerks, secretaries, stenographers, and accountants. Most were white. African American women were given jobs in the Pullman cars, cleaning linen, changing beds and washing floors.

In the West, the Northern Pacific employed 2,384 women during World War I, including over 900 in Washington, Idaho and Montana. Most held clerical jobs, but some found work in the machine shops, on the tracks and in the roundhouses. Women working these traditionally male jobs were asked to "not exert themselves beyond their strengths."2 Of course, women were also present in the railway cars as passengers.