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Roesch, Genevieve (audio interview #3 of 3)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the final of three interviews conducted with Genevieve Roesch in her daughter's home in Fullerton. At the time of the interview, work was being done on her own home in Tujunga. Initially self conscious, she gradually warmed up and seemed to enjoy the interview process, noting that it was making her think about things she hadn't thought of for years. She was surprised when the tape was turned off, commenting on how much she was talking.
- Date
- 2021-05-13
- Resource Type
- Creator
- Campus
- Keywords
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- Notes
- SUBJECT BIO - Genevieve Roesch went to work at Lockheed in 1942 fully intending to work there for only one year, doing her part for the war effort. Born in Chicago, the first of two children, Roesch joined her engineer father in the Panama Canal Zone when she was nine years old. The family left the canal and moved to Long Beach in 1920, where she graduated from high school, after which she worked as a sales clerk for two years. She married in 1927 and went with her husband to New Jersey, returning to Los Angeles in 1931. She remained a full-time homemaker, caring for her two children, until 1939, when she began working part-time in various clerical and sales jobs. Her part-time earnings and the partial support from her ex-husband was enough for her to live comfortably. Although she originally planned to join the war effort for a short duration, she began to enjoy the regular paycheck. She transferred out of production work into a clerical position after one and half years, and continued as a clerk at Lockheed for the next thirty one years. TOPICS - transfer to small tool repair; description of department; postwar layoffs; work attire; wages; losing position to returning veteran; transfer to maintenance facilities engineering department; promotions to departmsecretarial position in management facilities engineering; transfer to advanced development projects in Plant B6; job responsibilities; working conditions; problems with department clerks; retirement; divorce; singparenting; children's lives and work history; living arrangements; overtime issues at Lockheed following the war; social life and activities; reflections on life; impact of war work on her life; opinions about theThis interview covers Roesch's educational pursuits during and after her years at Lockheed; It is 3:24 in length;
- *** File: rrrgroesch9.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:03-5:13)... At her request, Roesch was transferred into a clerical job in the small tool repair department. When the war ended, she was displaced by a returning veteran who had worked as a department clerk . People were laid off after the war according to seniority and job classification. The company stopped laying people off just before they reached her number. (5:13-6:10)... Once she transferred into clerical work, Roesch began wearing dresses. She never wore pants to work again, even when the other women in the office began wearing them. After Roesch retired, however, she loathed wearing dresses and mainly wore pants. (6:10-8:12)... Roesch took a small pay cut after she went into clerical work. When she retired in 1975, she was making six dollars an hour. As an office worker, she was covered under the IAM contract, which had separate pay scales for production workers and office and technical workers. On a recent visit to the plant during, she learned that at the current pay rates for the clerical staff, her wages would have increased to $13 or $14/hour. (8:12-9:22)... After Roesch transferred into small tool repairs, she continued to socialize with her co-workers in production However, she lost contact with many of her friends in the plant after the war because of the layoffs, and after she was promoted to a secretarial position in a different department, her contact with production staff diminished quite a bit. (9:22-16:11)... Roesch left the IAM in 1952 when the plant went on strike. She did not support the strike and the only union meeting she ever attended was the one when the strike vote was taken. During the strike, she continued to work and was occasionally criticized as she crossed the picket line. The supervisors and salaried employees maintained the plant during the strike, but production was shut down for three weeks while a new contract was negotiated. She talks about the changes in the union since the strike and how the strike affected employee-management relationships. During a recent visit to the plant, Roesch learned that many of the supervisors were frustrated with the poor work ethic exhibited by the work force. (16:11-18:54)... When Roesch was displaced in small tool repair around 1946, she went to the personnel unit in her department and was given a list of positions available in her classification and seniority level. She interviewed for a few positions before settling in maintenance facilities engineering. (18:54-21:45)... Maintenance facilities engineering shared a building with the purchasing agent for surplus materials. When she first started in the department, employees were able to purchase materials from the surplus store in the building. There only were four people employed in the maintenance facilities engineering department, including herself. Although she could not recall what her earnings were when she first started as a department clerk in that department, she received a raise every three months. (21:45-26:07)... Roesch describes her job responsibilities as department clerk in the maintenance facilities engineering department. She was later promoted to department clerk steno. She worked in this position until 1950 when she was promoted to a secretarial position. (26:07-27:56)... Even after the postwar layoffs, there were still quite a few women employed in both production and non-production jobs at Lockheed. Roesch recalls that practically the entire electrical department was staffed by women. (27:56-30:05)... Initially, being promoted to a secretarial position was not a big change for Roesch. But looking back on it, she remembers that she was very nervous because her new boss was above the department manager and she had never worked with him before. She had always worked with friendly people, but her new boss because he was not very friendly. End of tape. *** File: rrrgroesch10.mp3 (0:21-4:41)... Roesch's boss in maintenance facilities engineering department left Lockheed as a result of personality conflicts he had with department executives. He had a bad temper and she had a few confrontations with him until "he realized that he should not talk to me that way." By the time he left the plant, they were good friends. Roesch admits that when she first started working at Lockheed she was passive and avoided confrontations. As she got older, however, she became more assertive and confident. (4:41-8:43)... After her boss left Lockheed, Roesch got a new boss with whom she had previously worked when he was a department clerk in maintenance facilities engineering. When he was transferred to Plant B6, he requested that Roesch accompany him to his new position. At that time, she began working in a secure area known as advanced development projects. She describes her work environment and her job responsibilities in this department. Although she worked in a top secret department, she did not handle sensitive documents. (8:43-12:04)... While in advanced development projects, Roesch supervised the department clerk working in her office. During these years, she went through at least three of four different department clerks because some of the women were bad employees. Roesch noticed that the women who had a poor work ethic were the ones who had previously worked in production and had no interest in the work. (12:04-14:26)... Roesch describes her responsibilities in advanced development projects, and notes that it was never monotonous. She discusses a report she worked on dealing with an aerospace exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum. (14:26-16:27)... Roesch retired from Lockheed in January 1975 when she was sixty-eight years old. She was not looking forward to retirement like most of her co-workers were. However, she adjusted to retirement within a few months and learned to enjoy her time off. (16:27-22:25)... After Roesch divorced, she worried about managing things on her own as a single mother. It was not necessary for her to work because of the support she received from her ex-husband. Her life completely changed after the divorce because "there were so many places you didn't go" as a single woman. She went out on dates in a group setting because she did not want to give her husband any reason to claim that she was an unfit mother. She was never pressured to remarry. Even though she came close to remarrying a couple of times, "I never met anyone that I would care to give up my life for. My children always came first." (22:25-24:39)... Roesch lived in a two-bedroom home next door to her mother in Tujunga from 1939 to 1980. (24:39-27:58)... After Roesch's son graduated from high school in 1946, he went to work in communications. He was drafted into the Army during the Korean War and served until 1953. She recalls her anxieties during the years he spent in the service. (27:58-30:06)... Roesch took a blueprint training class at Lockheed so that she could draw up the plans for her new house. She was fortunate to find a good contractor to build it because, as she notes, she was so green. When her mother died in 1965, Roesch's sister inherited the lot on which their mother's home stood. However, since her sister was living in Mexico City and could not afford to pay the property taxes, Roesch bought her sister out and took over the property. At that time, she drew up plans and hired a contractor to remodel her mother's home, which she eventually rented out. End of tape. *** File: rrrgroesch11.mp3 (0:03-0:40)... Some time in 1980, Roesch left Tujunga and moved to Garden Grove to be near her daughter. She continued to maintain ownership of her properties in Tujunga after she moved to Orange County. (0:40-4:07)... Roesch never read any parenting books while she was raising her children, doing everything by guesswork. She had different ideas about child rearing than her mother; despite this difference, her mother's approach did not interfere with Roesch's ability to raise her children they way she wanted. She believes that it is natural for mothers and daughters to have conflicts and different ways of doing things. She talks about her own daughter and the differences in their personalities. (4:07-5:49)... While her children were growing up, Roesch's home was always full of people. which made it even more difficult for her to adjust after they left home. Both of her children married and left the nest the same year. After her son's children left home, he confided in her about the difficulty he was having dealing with an empty nest and understood how it must have been for her when he and his sister left. Roesch comments on her son's attempts to distance himself from the family when he was a teenager. Her daughter did not go through this normal teenage phase. (5:49-7:53)... Roesch discusses her son's technical skills and outlines his work history both during and after high school. (7:53-11:06)... Unlike Roesch, her daughter was not interested in sports or physical activities while she was in school. She pursued creative outlets, such as music and theatrics. After she graduated from high school, she got a clerical job with the LA Times and then Mobile Oil. She married in 1957 when she was twenty-two and divorced in 1963, at which time she went into real estate. (11:06-12:46)... Lockheed stopped paying employees overtime after the war. When she went into clerical work, there were specific procedures that department heads had to follow in order to receive authorization for overtime and every department was limited in the amount of overtime employees could work. (12:46-16:01)... Roesch describes her social life and activities in the postwar years. She spent a lot of time with her family at their cabin in Big Bear. However, the community no longer appeals to her because the new development in the area has made it more like an urban resort town. (16:01-18:02)... After her children married and left home, they remained close and visited each other regularly. She has six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. (18:02-19:46)... Roesch has a difficult time pinpointing when she felt the happiest in her life. The unhappiest time in her life occurred when she was going through a divorce and learning how to adjust to being a single mother. She would not do anything differently if she had the opportunity to live her life over. However, she jokes that she would probably change a lot of things in her children's lives. (19:46-23:00)... Looking back at her work at Lockheed during the war years, Roesch comments: "I don't see how I ever did it. I would never want to go through it again." Although the time she spent in production was pleasant and rewarding, there were brief periods when she did not enjoy her work or the people she worked with. Her life completely changed after she went into defense because she had to give up all of her club activities, "but I thought it was about time for me to go to work and do something useful." Since she retired, she joined a leisure club and went on a trip to the Grand Canyon. She is planning more excursions with this group in the future. (23:00-25:08)... Roesch talks about retirement activities, focusing on her travels both in and outside the United States. (25:08-26:38)... Compared to women in her generation, Roesch believe that women today are much more aggressive. When she was younger, a married woman's role was to be a housewife because if a woman worked she was "taking a job away from a man and it wasn't necessary for her to work." Today, however, it is more acceptable for women to work after they marry. (26:38-27:18)... Even though she initially planned to work at Lockheed for only a year, Roesch decided to stay because the money was so good. When the war ended and she was no longer allowed to work overtime on Saturdays, she contemplated getting another job to make up for the lost wages. During the war, she wanted to save as much money as possible so that she could afford to build a house. (27:18-28:21)... Roesch notes: "I'm not a woman libber [and] I don't want to be called 'Ms.'" She has no interest in or opinion about the ERA. Her girlfriend in Maryland is a feminist, but they do not talk about the women's movement or politics because of their differing viewpoints on these issues. (28:21-29:50)... Roesch never questioned her daughter's decision to work because "the whole idea of women working had changed." She wished that her daughter would have continued working after she married because her husband never held a job longer than two years and she probably would have been much better off after the divorce. End of tape. *** File: rrrgroesch12.mp3 (0:02-3:24)... Roesch discusses her educational pursuits during and after the years she worked at Lockheed. In addition to taking business courses, she also took language courses at adult education centers and community colleges. End of tape.
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0305811757763765-rrrgroesch10.mp3 | 2023-10-19 | Public | Download | |
0791856626726403-rrrgroesch11.mp3 | 2023-10-19 | Public | Download | |
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