Some idea of the extent to which they have replaced men on machine tools may be obtained from the following list of machines which women operated in one government plant in New York State: he Reason r Subdivi on of rocesses in ew York ate. Pratt & Whitney thread miller.. 1954 As has been indicated elsewhere replacement in New York State has been direct, that is, women have taken men's places without rearrangement in process or addition of new machinery. In fact, rare cases of subdivision occurred not so much because the women could not do the work as because a division of labor was in one way or another dictated by the needs of shop organization. By way of illustration could be cited a certain plant in which women were introduced to operate a cable armor machine. The women performed a skilled ten-minute operation of shaping and soldering a broken end of steel tape and lifted a thirty five pound spool of steel tapeing across the floor, while a man was called on to assist them in starting the machine, which required merely the lifting of a light lever. Women performed the skilled and the heavy work; the man completed the circuit and started the machine. The women operators could have been made more valuable in two ways. The lifting could have been left to the man and the starting of the machine to the women, or better, the heavy spools could have been lifted by simple cranes or racks and so eliminate the necessity for man power entirely. But according to the statement of the manager himself, women were employed at the beginning of the war and retained after it was over, not because men were not available but because "women would keep the men from being too cocky." A certain number of employers have accounted for a lower wage rate for women than men on the same work by saying that the women were unable to set their own machines, the deduction from their wages paying for the employment of tool-setters. In most cases this was an excuse rather than a cause. The better practice in all plants has been to have tool-setters for men as well as for women. Where division of the process has occurred, heavy lifting has often been the cause,-deduction from women's wages in such cases again being explained as necessary in order to pay the porters. In one plant where the women were paid $12.00 a week for work on which men received $16.00, their increased production defrayed the cost of porterage and the $4.00 per week difference between the men's and women's wage decreased the cost of production for the employer. The success of women on processes in which they have already replaced men is probably assured, but their future in men's work not yet attempted depends upon the degree to which they can acquire skill, and the extent to which opportunity to learn skilled trades is offered. According to the constitution of the International The Future of Women Machinists. ndustrial Association of Machinists, "A machinist is a man who can, with the aid of tools, with or without drawings, make, repair, erect, assemble, or dismantle machinery, or parts thereof. Such a man may be admitted to membership in the association." The definition further includes, "All men engaged in the manufacture of metal model novelties where hand labor or machine labor is used as above outlined, all jig workers, mouldmakers, and all metal pattern makers employed in machine shops." Women have not, of course, become toolmakers except in a few rare cases. Nor have they entered the class of what is known as "all round machinists." Their skill stops short at the point where tools must be reset, machines dismantled and blue-prints read. With a few exceptions they fall into the group which the War Labor Board in making its awards classifies as specialists, or workmen who can operate one or more single purpose machines, but who are not equipped to make the adjustments necessary on general purpose machines. Most of the processes undertaken by the first women supplanting men were such as required no previous inducation. dustrial experience. As time went on training schools became necessary adjuncts to the large plants. Of the 117 plants included in the study seven were found training women in schools. Two plants employed more than 5,000 women and one other would have fallen in the same class had the Armistice not been signed before its maximum working force was reached. The four other plants employed from 242 to 515 women workers. In six additional plants the future policy will definitely include training for an increasing number of women workers. The organization and theory of industrial education upon which these schools were founded is one of the most important topics being discussed in the current post-war period. During the war their aim was to turn out specialists as quickly as possible. Since the war the opinion has been growing that women when showing ability should be trained for the most skilled trades. ethod of omputing age Rates. 20 Opinion differs, however, as to the best method for training women workers. Several industrial managers maintain that better results are obtained by placing the untrained women in the shop to be instructed by special instructors. Such procedure associates them from the first with experienced rather than inexperienced workers. The practical advantage of this more informal training has been long appreciated by telegraphers, among whom the office trained operator has a certain advantage over the school trained one because of the local color she has absorbed during her period of learning. Other managers say that a preliminary training in a vestibule school saves the time of foremen and fellow workers who are otherwise constantly called upon to stop their own machines to help the "green hand." This is a matter which can be settled only by the process of trial and error in each trade. To all employers it has been clear that if women are to enter the machine or other skilled trades they must be given a special training to make up for what they missed as children and young girls. The average boy learns to handle simple tools as the average girl learns to play with dolls, which gives him a technical advantage when they enter the shop side by side. WAGES OF WOMEN REPLACING MEN. Wage rates of women replacing men were computed in two ways, depending on whether they were on a time or piece basis. When on time, the investigators secured the hourly rate paid to the majority of women who had completed training and were on production but who were not workers of long experience. This rate was multiple.1 by the number of hours worked per week and compared with the men's rate on the same work for the same number of hours. When on piece, the usual weekly earnings of the same class of men and women workers was recorded, allowance being made for the additional hours worked by men. |