1951-01-13 — Page 3

China Mail 德臣西報 中國郵報 All

A ALTU

KIMYA MAMLAKA

AMERICA'S WOMEN RETURN TO THEIR WAR JOBS

WOMEN éxcel men in tedious jobs calling for dexterity and have replaced them on this assembly line, placing rivets in containers.

Checking the rolling elements of ball bearings is monotonous and confining work, but women at the SKF plant enjoy it, even though they must wear magnifying glasses for hour.

$11,670,000

E ∙15,430,000

(1947/POSTWAR;

-18,213,000 TODAY

OSIE THE RIVETER, Swing Shift Suale and just

more punching time clocks at Amèrican war plants.

Shortage of skilled workers and a rearmament programme building up to gigantic proportions are sending many thousands of woman into the factories." It's a repeat performance of what accurred back in 1940- 41, with one exception. Today, there is no surplus farm manpower, no unemployment rolls to draw upon, A sharp increase in defence production will require that far more women than in World War II must be trained for industrial jobs.

The trek back to the work bench has been extremely heavy since the start of the Korean war. The number of women employed has reached 18,218,000 and is fast approaching the wartime peak of 20,430,000. This is in sharp contrast to the postwar low of 15,480,000 and the prewar figure of 11,670,000, a year before Pearl Harbour,

A typical example of the current personnel trend is found at the Philadelphia plant of SKF Industries, which makes ball and roller bearings. In 1949, Ita ratio of women to men employees was one in five. It's now one in four.

ANOTHER JOB at which women are adept is packaging, Here, they are checking fully assembled ball bearings against shipment orders.

20,430,000 PRE-PEARL 1944 WARTIME

HARBOR

PLAX

རྩ

HIGHLY-POLISHED steel bearing balls, mirroring an inspector's, will divert them to the melting pot. Once the spheres have been face, are checked for imperfections. The slightest fiat surface polished, they are handled only with gloves to prevent damage,

Thy Chility to handle heavy factory work that done only. by men, women operate compli-

cated machines that grind bearing rings. Women classed:

as sic!led mechanics are in high demand in war planta,

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