AN ALL-OUT EFFORT

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 8, 5 October 1943, Page 6

AN ALL-OUT EFFORT

American Women In War Industries American women of all ages aud with backgrounds as varied as a nation cau offer have been signing up for jobs by the hundreds of thousands since the war began. The demand for women in industry continues unabated. Experienced or untrained, in war production centres, virtually any woman who wants a job can obtain one of some sort. Age is no handicap. A <O-year-old woman who had sailing experience m her youth turned the dining-room of her home into a classroom for boys soon to undertake special Navy training. For 12 hours daily she held classes iu navigation, and the more than 50 boys she had tutored passed the Navy course without a single failure. One eastern women’s college reported that 42 per cent, of this year’s graduates already had accepted jobs in essential industries before receiving their diplomas. One graduate handled a milling machine in the daytime and studied law at night. , „ A Polish-born widow whose three sons are in the Army and the Coast Guard helps to make heavy bombers. V hen the motor company where she ran a sewing machine in the upholstery department started making planes, she was transferred to the bomber frame sub-assembly department and not long ago received an Army-Navy “E,” signifying excellence in her work. She, like countless others, puts more than 10 per cent, of her pay into war bonds. . ... Some women who are taking jobs today have had previous work, experience, some have converted old skills to new uses and many have never been emp.oyed before. “It was easy to learn niaenines, said a woman who has been turning out piston rings in a factory. “I have always worked with my fingers. This was just a little bit tougher on them. The manual dexterity she had needed for her work in a beauty shop made it easy for her to learn the war job. She said that working with machinery was more exciting than combing curls. Blind and disabled women, too, are using their highly developed sense of touch to speed war production by sorting mica, distinguishing between thicknesses calculated in thousandths of an inch. There is no instrument that cau do this work.