The Girl Who Joined the Road Gang
A teenager looking to fund her high school education finds unexpected employment—and respect—among a tough paving crew near Spokane.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The age of chivalry is not past. Josephine Ruhl of Otis Orchards, a small community near Spokane, proved this when she joined a road crew to help finish a $200,000 paving contract in record time. Miss Ruhl, needing to earn money for her high school tuition, approached the foreman of a highway project. Skeptical but willing, the crew of 25 to 30 men put her to work piling and binding empty cement sacks. Though the work was physically taxing and the environment dusty, Ruhl stuck with it. Her presence quickly changed the atmosphere of the site; the foreman noted that the men worked faster and curbed their language, eventually accepting her as a fellow professional. Upon completion of the job, the workers pooled their own money to provide her with a substantial purse of $40, a gesture of respect for their plucky colleague.
“There should be a girl like that nipping sacks on every cement mixer.”
This story highlights the historical gender barriers in manual labor that persist in some industries today. While the narrative is framed in the 'chivalric' language of the 1920s, it documents a moment of gender integration on a construction site that remains relevant to modern conversations about women in trade professions.
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