| Show Women Will Create Postwar Problem in Britain By Bj ROSETTE HARGROVE THE MIDLANDS England NEA NEA-An NEA An Industrial revolution revolution tion is taking place in Britain that may have the most far- far reaching postwar effects This fact was driven home to me time and again during a recent tour of some of the largest war factories in th the English provinces inces There are already over ver a million million mil mil- lion women volunteers working in war industries throughout Great Britain and the country can use and will get through conscription If necessary w well e 11 over a million more These women wom wom- en trained at government schools are going to meet the peace with knowledge of skilled work in trades never before accessible accessible ac ac- ac to them It is a great question whether they will ever want to go back to their former way of living They U Weren't erent Reluctant It has taken some time to start the machinery for harnessing harness harness- harnessing ing the woman power of the country to the war effort If conscription has been needed this does not necessarily imply that women were reluctant to todo todo todo do their share A large percentage percent percent- age of them were merely waiting waiting wait wait- ing for instructions On the theother theother theother other hand It would be foolish to deny that many women women suffered suffered suffered suf suf- considerable pangs at the thought of being wrenched away from the shelter of home and family life and thrown into the vortex of factory life But now the sense of urgency of the time factor so imperative imperative impera impera- impera tive in m total war has come home to British women They now understand that victory rests as much with them as with the themen themen themen men in the forces Conscription has confirmed this feeling Women are not patriotic in the way men are but every everyone one of them works or is ready to work with a will because deep down downIn In her heart she has at last realized realized re re- re all zed that In so doing her sweetheart or husband son or brother will return that much quicker to her Women Everywhere E I found women everywhere In factories turning out engines for range long-range bombers in ma ma- tool chine-tool works in small arms factories doing both skilled and unskilled work and doing it well Everywhere the men In charge were loud In their praise of workers Some of course had been employing them before the war for others this was a totally totally totally to to- tally new venture The women are marvelous said the manager of one unit of England's most famous armament armament armament arma arma- ment works they turn out anything anything any any- thing from a to antiaircraft shells sheIls They are easy to handle and respond to kindness and fair treatment After all all he went on wom worn ens en's hands are made for skilled jobs such as we turn out in the factory factory factory-a a cross section of war work which might almost be called a little Switzerland Few men have that deft turn of the wrist that dexterity of touch J S y t J iy I IONE ONE OF BRITAIN'S FAIR VOLUNTEER WORKERS She does her bit inspecting rifles which seems to come naturally to most women women Report Universal Everywhere you go you hear the same thing Women are far better than men at repetitive jobs Feminine psychology Is such that once they have acquired acquired ac ac- ac quI red the rhythm caught on onto onto onto to the sequence of movements they do the job as well as any man and what is more stick at it longer Women dont don't even stop to powder their noses What is more they acquire a greater sense of responsibility to their ma machines hines made up partly of pride and partly because at bottom bottom bot bot- tom they are a little afraid of them The training of women Is being being be be- ing made possible not only since the government as a wartime emergency threw open Its training training training train train- ing centers to them but In the ther r heart of many of the factories themselves w where h her e r e training classes have been instituted Instituted to afford women all the advantages of a training school while doing a job of work at the same time Certainly No Harder Factory work is certainly no harder than housework and no nomore nomore nomore more repetitive It was also proved to me that girls with no sense of mechanics at all could master a number of hitherto unknown un- un unknown unknown un un- known details of machinery after after aft aft- er 48 hours' hours tuition Another interesting fact which was often repeated to me the me-the the percentage of failures among women is practically nil When it is found that a girl has too much difficulty in mastering certain technicalities she is put on a job more within her scope In one factory making aero acm engines 1500 girls had passed out of the school in the last 12 months Most of them were put on highly skilled jobs Including t tapping a p p pin i n g and studding which had previously been done by men only After six weeks' weeks training girls were being posted post post- ed to the hangars to take down records of the countless tests made by the engineers before the engine is actually placed in inthe inthe the fuselage Like Their Work Every woman every girl I talked to In countless shops as well as in training schools confessed she liked the work and found it no harder than whatever whatever what what- ever she had done before Most of them admitted esp especially those who had never seen the inside of a factory before that before that they had dreaded the idea of It But not one declared she would rather be doing something else If these women still feel that way after the war an industrial revolution of major Importance lies In the offing |
