Women's History Month Women who weld: 'I grew up around a lot of metal'

QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11) -- Remember Rosie the Riveter, made popular during World War II when women took welding jobs while men fought overseas. 

Women who weld started even earlier than that, during World War I. 

Because March is Women’s History Month, there is a new exhibit about women welders. It is called “Behind the Mask, The Art of Women Who Weld” at Culture Club LIC. 

There were 30 female artists with 60 pieces on display, from metal birds flying overhead to ants on the ground to this huge victory sculpture. Parts were found in scrap heaps across the city. 

But why do women weld? 

“I’m a New Yorker,” Alexander Limpert, artist, told PIX11 News. “I grew up around a lot of metal, metal subways, metal bridges, metal, metal, metal, metal elevators.  It is everywhere,” she added. 

Some artists created serious works, like a medieval torture device, while others created whimsical works, such as boots and shoes in stainless steel and copper. 

“It’s a man’s field,” Wendy Kaplan's friend, who created a boot and two pairs of shoes in metal, told PIX11 News. “Ten of the women here I have worked with me over the years. It is a camaraderie and we do very heavy-duty work and we are as successful as the men are, even more so,” she added. 

The co-curator, Karen Kettering Dimit, gave a historical perspective. 

“In 1917, 1916, during World War I, they were needing women welders. In England, they tried to get equal pay,” she added. 

Welding has long been considered a male profession, but the co-curators are hoping to turn that idea upside down this Women's History Month with Behind the Mask. 

“I just don’t think women get the same respect or attention,” Edjo Wheeler, Culture Lab LIC's founder and executive director, told PIX11 News. “It tends to be a male-dominated field and there’s no reason for that, whatsoever,” he said. 

This exhibit runs through the last weekend in April.