Providence, R. I.
In our own experience, without doubt, much more attention has been
given by foremen and fellow-workmen to the supervision of women’s
work than has been given to the average male employee in the past,
the assumption being that a woman, having less mechanical background
and intuition than a man, required more training and more specific
instructions. This has been the reason advanced by some foremen in
explaining why women were doing better work and had “broken in” more
quickly than men, and they have added, “If we had given the same
kind of attention to each new man employed, he would have done just
as well as the girl”; this is, after all, an admission on the part
of the foreman that he had not in the past helped all he could, and
an indirect compliment to the girl having much significance. It
may be noted, however, that at the time when such comparisons were
made the average man who could be secured was of an unsatisfactory
and irresponsible class, as so few trained or competent men were
available for positions in the industries, while, on the other hand,
in hiring girls a selection from a large number of applicants could
be made, so that it was possible to obtain a much better average
having the qualities to make successful workers.
Experience has shown that there are advantages in having both men and
women in the same department, as it tends to hold the same standard
of workmanship and speed for women as for men, while it is believed
that having a separate department for women may establish a separate
and lower standard, the tendency being to make more allowance for
women because of sex. The results seem to show that it is not at
all necessary that separate standards should be established and
that in some lines of work even more can be expected of women than
of men because of their nimble fingers and quickness of motion. As
to questions of discipline, where the two sexes are employed in the
same work-room, little or no difficulty is experienced under capable
foremanship.
Actual results have proved that the fears in the minds of some that
there would be opposition on the part of foremen and workmen to the
employment of women in the shop were ungrounded. A foreman remarked
to a visitor: “See that girl working beside the man assembling
speed indicators? She is working with him so as to learn all the
requirements, and he knows that she is to have his job as soon as
she has become sufficiently proficient, but he is helping her in
every way possible. Of course, we shall find other work for the man;
and often, with the present shortage of help, such a change of work
can be in the line of promotion.” This illustrates the spirit which
is practically universal throughout the shop, and which has been an
important factor in bringing about the success of the plan.
While the money question—the earning power—is uppermost in the minds
of the majority, many of the women show also a distinct ambition to
equal or excel men in the work they do. Soon after the employment
of women was begun in the gear department, a girl who was cutting
sprockets on a gear-cutting machine became discouraged and said she
was afraid she could not make a success of the job. Her foreman was
surprised and said to her, “We have not made any complaint as to your
work, have we?” “No,” she said, “but the man who worked on the night
job turned out 105 pieces, while the best I could do was only 85
pieces a day.” Her foreman asked if she realized that the man on the
night force was working three hours more per day than she was, and
after learning this she felt less discouraged with the results she
had obtained.
In the gear department where a number of girls have been “broken
in” in operating gear-cutting machines, the foreman said that they
had taken hold as quickly as the average man, and some of them are
doing exceptionally good and intelligent work. This has partly
resulted from the girls being thrown as rapidly as possible on their
own resources, being taught to set up their machines, working from
a blue-print, to measure their work, and do everything that had
previously been required of the operator. A criticism has recently
been made of some of the departments to the effect that the foremen
were giving so much supervision to the women’s work that they were
not thrown sufficiently on their own resources, and thus were not
trained to be responsible for the work in hand. This again speaks
well for the women, as showing that there is a growing appreciation
of their ability to do more advanced work than had at first been
expected.
In inspection work a field has been found for women in which they
are making an exceptionally good showing. The chief inspector was
asked whether women were learning to read the micrometer caliper.
He replied that they learned to read it and read it accurately, in
a very short time, and that the work passing through their hands
showed much discrimination as to the points criticised. He pointed
to a pile of work rejected by one of the women inspectors and said,
“I have just had a man go over this work, and he has found that
while the work failed to pass inspection for many reasons, they
were all good reasons.” He said further that in inspecting grinding
work he was surprised at the quickness with which some of his women
inspectors would pick out batches of work identifying them as coming
from particular workmen whose work was known to be above the average.
In another department, in inspecting measuring tools, a similar
condition was noted by the foreman, and he stated that one of the
girl inspectors recently told him that she liked to inspect the work
of Mr. Blank, because it required so few rejections. “And,” remarked
the foreman, “she sized the situation up just right.” He also showed
the writer the notes attached to a number of tools which had been
held out by the woman inspector for corrections, these criticisms
showing much discrimination on her part, and as good a degree of
judgment as would have been expected from the experienced inspectors
who had previously been doing the work. It is thus found that in the
class of inspection work where women are employed the standard is not
lowered because of their employment.
Already several women are employed in the toolmaking department. One
of these employees, who was operating a lathe turning out tool-steel
blanks for bits and reamers, doing her own setting up and measuring,
evinced enthusiasm for machine shop work, showing, in reply to
questions, that her work was opening up a new field in which she took
especial interest and she remarked, “No more housework for me,” with
such feeling that it was evident her interests strongly leaned in a
mechanical direction. Girls in the toolmaking department are working
on universal milling machines, surface grinders, etc., as well as
lathes. Some of the younger girls throughout the works are employed
as messengers.
(Signed) L. D. BURLINGAME.
[Illustration: Operating automatic gear-cutting machines. The girls
are taught to set up their machines and make all measurements,
working from a blue-print. Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co.]
[Illustration: Girls employed on polishing machines. “When they
become proficient on polishing, they are given more advanced work at
“hand-tooling,” etc., on these machines. Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co.]
[Illustration: Fluting reamers, etc., on Universal milling machines
in the toolmaking department. Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co.]
[Illustration: Operating hand milling machines in the production of
duplicate parts. Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co.]