INTRODUCTION
Shipbuilding and ship repair were not a woman’s business but the wartime emergency made them so! For the first time in the history of the United States, women are at work by the thousands at navy yards and commercial shipyards because of the critical shortage of man power. All the traditions of the shipbuilding industry were against hiring women to do such work but necessity became the mother of production and women were employed to help on the tremendous Navy expansion program which has now given this nation the largest fleet in the world.
When the national defense program began to develop in 1939 the aircraft industry hired women in large numbers; but shipbuilding and repair yards held to their traditional “No Women Wanted” attitude until after Pearl Harbor. In fact, just a few months previous, in July, 1941, a national publication made sport of the extreme anti-feminine attitude of one of the largest shipyards. The magazine stated that women were not accepted as secretaries and a few feminine telephone operators were “kept under lock and key.” Today that same yard is one of the most publicized for its leadership in the employment of women.
Once war was declared there was no temporizing. All kinds of ships were needed: battleships and minesweepers; aircraft carriers and landing craft; attack transports and barges. The President called for a bridge of ships to Europe and later the Maritime Commission undertook to span the Pacific. To build them all; to counter the submarine attacks; to replace huge losses of merchantmen; and to restore the fighting fleet, badly crippled at Pearl Harbor, took man power. But it was not as plentiful as before, due to the millions needed for the armed services and the tremendous employment demands of many industries doing all types of war work, all of them trying to outbid each other for workers.
To fill the great gap between demand and supply America turned to an untried source: woman power. The shipbuilding industry and the navy yards were urged by the War Manpower Commission and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy to overcome their prejudice and admit women to the ranks of labor.
WOMEN IN INDUSTRY IN OTHER COUNTRIES
Fortunately for the United States, other countries had already some experience in the wartime employment of women in industry. England had gone so far as to require compulsory registration, permitting the workers to be shifted from one locality to another and to be assigned jobs in various industries without choice on their part. Although the measure was supported by public opinion and although the system of administration included compulsory billeting, the transfer of women from one community to another was difficult due to the resulting disturbance of the national economic life.
We also know that in Russia women not only helped build ships but also served aboard them, and throughout industry in that country women undertook to perform many difficult tasks.
This nation did not resort to the conscription of women nor did it allow them to serve aboard ship. Conscription was debated in the halls of Congress but was never required by law.
Instead, the United States made use of methods typically American. Newspaper and radio publicly “glamorized” industrial war work and the idea was sold to the public by large-scale recruiting drives, by the U. S. Employment Service, the Civil Service Commission, and many private plants. Many women were impelled to seek regular employment from patriotic reasons, others were attracted by the opportunity to attain a measure of financial independence or by other economic motives. Some, no doubt, welcomed a chance to escape from household routine to a quite different environment.
The result was that when the Navy Department issued its call for women workers in navy yards, women from all walks of life donned masculine overalls or slacks to work side by side with men in building and repairing navy ships.
WOMEN IN SHIPYARDS
Prior to the war many Civil Service classifications were open to women but actual employment was limited to hand and machine sewing in sail and flag loft. In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1939, 49 women were so employed. In other navy yards sewing was done by men as late as August, 1942. About that time, here and there, women began to appear in other trades and a survey at Mare Island in June, 1942, showed that the number had reached a total of 540 which jumped in August to 1,142 and by December of that year had reached the considerable number of 3,070.
In May, 1943, the number of women employed in continental navy yards, not including the new activities at Terminal Island and Hunter’s Point, was 45,174 out of a total of 331,476. Slightly more than half of these, 24,151, were employed on production work. In releasing the figures, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy urged that greater efforts be made to increase this upward trend. The average percentage of women employed in all groups by the nine navy yards at that time was 13.6, but the percentage varied widely in the individual yards.
By July, 1943, the percentage had risen to 15.2 and the total employment to 53,080 out of a total of 348,955. The percentage continued to rise, reaching 16.9 in March, 1944, and 17.8 in December of the same year.
The new repair yards at Terminal Island and Hunter’s Point both employed a percentage of women well above the average. This was doubtless due to their establishment in areas already described as critically short of available man power. Terminal Island attained a percentage of 33.0 in 1943, which is believed to be a record for ship repair, if not for the shipbuilding industry.
GENERAL PROBLEMS
Assimilation of women is recognized by the United States Department of Labor to be more difficult in shipyards than in any other industry because of the heavy nature of the work and the strangeness of the environment. Management formerly believed that most shipyard jobs were too strenuous for women and that their admission to shipyards might have an adverse effect on production due to a certain distracting influence which might be expected to affect the men already employed. Even today there is reluctance to send women aboard ships in commission, although it has been repeatedly demonstrated that the problem of supervision is not insoluble. In private yards there is the additional deterrent that many state laws regulate the weights which women can handle and thereby put an artificial ceiling on their productive capacity.
Of lesser consequence was the old tradition that women working aboard a vessel “jinxed” the ship. Despite the fallacy of the superstition, many an old salt would go spinning in his grave at the thought of women working in a navy yard or helping to repair his “old ship.”
Many of these old ideas were knocked into a cocked hat when women began working in navy yards. In many trades they have done exceedingly well and in a few they surpass men. Flame cutting, arc welding, painting, and especially electrical, electronic, and optical work were early found to be easily handled by women, and the extension of their employment to other trades and jobs has been steady and rapid. At the Washington yard 500 women are rated ordnance workers, including specialists who process and inspect parts for delicate fire control instruments. Similar groups of women specialists are found in other yards. As a rule women possess more resistance to fatigue on monotonous work; they are meticulous; they are more thorough where attention to detail is essential, and they excel where manual dexterity is required.
MANAGEMENT'S PROBLEMS
From a management standpoint, physical peculiarities have to be considered; scheduled rest periods should be prescribed; weights handled manually arc limited; the number of hours in the work week must not be excessive; and assignment to shift should take into consideration individual domestic circumstances. For example: many women seeking employment have small children and their working hours have to be regulated by availability of nursery schools and transportation schedules.
It is also true that women being brought into the strange, noisy, “rough and ready” environment of shipyards need time to familiarize themselves with the industrial activity which every navy yard presents. Indoctrination courses in shipyard procedures, language, operations, compartmentation, etc., solved this problem.
Some authorities claim greater susceptibility to noise adds to their confusion during their first few days of work. One Navy medical officer with a wide background in industrial medicine claims this is untrue. He says women have the same eardrums as men; they are used to listening to children bawling at home or the blaring of radios broadcasting daytime serials, and noise doesn’t bother them any more than it does the male sex.
A study of 41 navy and commercial yards made by the Women’s bureau of the Department of Labor states that the most common practical problem involved in the employment of women is the number of skills necessary to do repair work. “In yards engaged solely in new construction,” the survey states, “most jobs can be broken down into component parts and inexperienced men and women trained to do one or more of these parts in a comparatively short time. As they learn more operations they increase in skill until they can do many of the complete jobs independently. This is not so easily accomplished in repair yards. The custom nature of the work demands a more general knowledge of craft fundamentals.” The above statements apply principally to commercial yards because naval vessels are so much more complicated than merchantmen that production line simplification of operations can seldom be attempted.
This fact has made the introduction of completely unskilled workers in large numbers a more difficult job in navy yards than for commercial yards doing only production work on ships of one or two types with much of the work prefabricated.
To employ women successfully in repair yards, in-service training courses are widely offered and some yards utilize training programs given by outside organizations. At Terminal Island, following a system developed at Mare Island, up-grading of production personnel, including women, is accomplished by continual instruction on the job by instructors located in each shop and by school sessions held periodically.
In regard to hours the Navy Department and the U. S. Maritime Commission, largest employers of shipyard workers, agree. Both recommend an eight-hour day, six days a week. When extra hours are demanded on urgent work in order to meet completion dates, additional leave should be granted when the urgency terminates. If this is not done a high production level cannot be maintained and excessive turnover and absenteeism may be expected. Although restrictions imposed by state laws may not apply to federal activities, it is wise to comply with them for in most cases they are justified by reasons of universal application.
Personnel policies for civilian employees in naval shore establishments state that an employee is hired on the assumption that he (or she) is willing to work any hour of the day and on any of the seven days of the week if necessary. The same statement of policy also declares that “whenever women are employed for work customarily done by men, the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work,’ irrespective of sex, will be followed.” This principle was instituted by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy in a circular letter dated August 28, 1942.
Special working conditions have been found advantageous when employing women. These include new types of seating so that work may be done sitting down that formerly had to be done in a standing position; standard tools have been redesigned so that they may be operated efficiently by women who have less strength than men; labor-saving devices such as fork lifts and cranes have been utilized so that women are able to do heavy work without excessive exertion.
From a safety standpoint, special rules arc desirable. Standards requiring the wearing of a hard hat, safety shoes, and goggles are applicable to every worker, regardless of sex. Others apply only to women, such as bans on the wearing of jewelry, open-toed shoes, floppy slacks, flowing sleeves, and lace frills which might get caught in moving machinery. The hair must be covered by a protective cap. To promote safety, some yards have on the premises special clothing shops for women.
SUPERVISION
Effective supervision of the working woman is, perhaps, the most difficult prerequisite to her efficient employment. Methods developed in private industry were studied and applied in navy yards. It was found necessary to make a complete analysis of the work to be done and to develop standardized tests and physical examinations with special reference to job placement. The initial interview of the applicant was found to have high importance.
Many questions arose to which no answer could be found from past experience: such as the one regarding use of women as supervisors. Dr. Donald A. Laird in Psychology of Supervising the Working Woman reports results of a survey of 521 women who had worked under both men and women bosses. Of these, 99.81 per cent expressed a preference to work under a male boss. In the Navy, enlisted WAVES showed a decided preference for male officers. On the other hand, there was pronounced reluctance on the part of male supervisors to accept women for training and employment on an equal basis with men. Due to rapid expansion of the working force generally, large numbers of supervisors were inexperienced. A formal program of supervisory training by the conference method was inaugurated and in it handling of women was given a prominent part. Management discovered that women retain their individuality and are less amenable to discipline in accordance with set rules. More attention had to be paid to individual cases.
The Personnel Department established in all navy yards by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy in May, 1943, provided for “personnel supervisors” in each shop. The personnel supervisor was usually a quartermaster mechanic selected for ability in personnel relations and provision was made for a personnel assistant, a woman preferably with mechanic experience who could assist the personnel supervisor with problems peculiar to the women employees. Although the personnel assistants were directly responsible to the masters of the shops, they were also advised and counseled by a woman on the staff of the personnel relations officer. This form of organization was found to work well and its adoption contributed greatly to success in handling women.
It was found that much depended on the psychological attitude of the supervisors toward the women in their groups. If they were merely tolerated or, on the other hand, given disproportionate attention, results were unsatisfactory. If they were accepted seriously as important units of the production force and treated, so far as possible, exactly as the men were treated, it was found that they could be relied upon to do their share of the work.
Some shipyards which employ women freely in the shops and on vessels under construction were baffled by the prospect of sending women aboard ships in commission where the environment offered, not only distraction from duty, but also opportunity for improper relations with enlisted men. Where the problem was squarely faced and co-operation of ships’ officers obtained, it proved possible to make a place for women to work even aboard ships in commission. In this connection it was found helpful at one yard to appoint a personnel assistant responsible directly to the repair superintendent. This woman spent her time on ships in commission inspecting all compartments. Working with ships’ officers and the women themselves, she succeeded in maintaining satisfactory standards of behavior. Women who have members of their immediate families on the battle fronts feel a strong sense of responsibility for completion of ship repairs and serve as an example to their male companions. Some yards went so far as to employ women on .ships in commission during the night shifts, and, where instructed supervision was provided, results were fairly satisfactory. It is likely, however, that such employment will be the first to be discontinued as soon as men in sufficient numbers become available for employment.
COMMUNITY PROBLEMS
Of all human institutions the family suffers most in time of war. The home is broken up when members of the family go into the armed services. Also in many cases the mother or wife goes into a war plant to work. Routine is upset; meals are often not served on time, the house is not kept up, and the children too young for grade school are placed in nursery schools. High wages in factories aggravate scarcity of domestic help. Older children are more free to roam the streets.
The war-working mother or wife finds she must adapt herself to conditions which in normal peacetime living would be undreamed of. As one woman put it, “You get up. You stand on the corner waiting for transportation. You work. You stand in the streetcar. You stand in line at one counter, and another. You stand over the stove; you stand over flic sink and the washtub; you stand over your kids. You grab a few hours’ sleep. You get up . . . and the whole routine starts all over again.” It is no wonder that under such conditions absenteeism and turnover are high.
Employee services and community aids which provide relaxation and alleviate some distress are: 24-hour nurseries, foster homes, night shopping, all-night movies, swing-shift dances, and in-plant feeding. Managers of the old school may regard these as frills. Under war conditions they are essential!
Most important wartime aids to mothers are the 24-hour nurseries. Although the majority of them close in the evenings, some are kept open so that mothers may have a place to leave their small children no matter what shift they work. In extreme cases, some children spend as much as 20 hours out of the day in these nurseries. Others are cared for in foster homes, where they are kept all week, the mother only taking the child for week ends. More definite thought seems to have been given the responsibility of industry to mothers with children in England than in the United States. In its leaflet “The Employment of Women—Suggestions to Employers,” the Ministry of Labour and National Service states:
Women will possibly have young children to get off to school or nursery before they can come to work. Arrangements should be made to accommodate their hours to those requirements. It will be urged in objection that management becomes disorganized when special arrangements of this character have to be made for individuals. To this, the answer is that the paramount consideration is to make it as easy as possible for women to enter the factories and, to that end, there is no alternative but to adapt factory practice to the present situation.
Management since the war has had to face the necessity of in-plant feeding on a large scale. Cafeterias have been built or enlarged. Portable canteens also operate throughout most yards. The number using cafeteria service fluctuates in each individual yard according to the caliber of the food and the time allotted for lunch. It is a fact recognized by the Women’s bureau of the Department of Labor that the majority of workers cannot secure well-balanced meals at home or at restaurants on account of lack of time for shopping and difficulty in buying due to food rationing. More nutritious meals served at the plant, therefore, become a necessity.
Second only to in-plant feeding, transportation and housing arc a matter of concern. The concentration of the shipbuilding industry at the coast line unavoidably produces congestion. The great influx of workers into neighborhoods in the vicinity of shipyards is recognized by some communities as a burden imposed on them by the war. In others there may be appreciation of the value of industrial payrolls with unselfish co-operation in solving transportation and housing problems. In many cases great hardship is experienced by families with small children who, impelled by patriotism or propaganda, migrate to the coast. The workers, and particularly the women, are sensitive to the lack of welcome, have a sense of inferiority in their social contacts, and these factors adversely affect their work.
POST-WAR PROBLEMS
The post-war effects of the employment of women in war work are difficult to calculate; for the end of the war is not yet in sight and the nation’s plans for its post-war future have not yet been made.
If the fleet is maintained on a large scale, it is safe to predict that many women will wish to continue to be employed in certain productive capacities in navy yards, but employment of women will undoubtedly be reduced to a minimum since men returning from service with a background of pre-war navy yard experience will naturally seek a return to their former jobs and have a veteran’s preference to get them. Already there is a marked tendency for women to return to their homes and their percentage is falling in those yards where male replacements arc available.
The crux of the post-war problem, however, is the effect upon family life and earning capacity that will develop when women leave shipyards. While it is true that many women went to work in navy yards during the war emergency as a “must” proposition to keep the family going, a large number took employment to swell the family bankroll or to put themselves in the position of being able to afford luxuries denied them in the past. Still others, most of them young and single, wanted the feeling of independence to be obtained from having money of their own, plus the opportunity to travel to various sections of the United States far away from the small towns of their birth. By far the majority of married women, particularly those who did not want to work but did so for patriotic or other reasons, are anxious to return to their homes. Some idea of the size of this group can be gained when it is realized that more than three million of the 6,650,000 new entrants to the labor force of the United States between December 1941 and March 1944 were married women; and the number has grown since that date. To younger, unmarried women the war’s end will mean the return of their men from service and the opportunity for long-awaited marriage and independent home life. To others, the end of the war can only mean a continuance of the struggle for existence. Many women whose husbands were killed or maimed in the service will wish to remain employed in navy yards since they will need to augment their pensions by working. Since casualties in this war already far exceed U. S. losses in World War I, this group will, of necessity, be larger than after 1918 and the debt of honor owed these women in the loss of their loved ones in the service of their country will undoubtedly have to be paid in some form of employment.
Rear Admiral Cochrane, Chief of the Bureau of Ships, recently said in reply to a question from the press, “Women in shipyards have been invaluable. We could not have got along without them.” Their contribution will be long remembered by a grateful nation.