Rayon Yarns - Summer - 1942

Wringer Crew:  Margaret Taylor, Hester Rollins, Ida B. Stone

Would events of the past weeks and months have made Americans stop and think!  Will there be enough men to fill all the extra jobs created by our national war program?  The answer is no, and thousands of women have been taken into industry.  Women are not only taking more and more jobs in the types of work they held in peace times but are entering what have been in the past forbidden fields for women.  We are seeing changes of this sort right here in our plant every day.

Machine Cleaning-Louise Maynard

Out in 2-B Textile Area, I inquired about how many girls they had doing boys' work and was very surprised to learn that they now have only 20 boys in the whole area.  Compare this small number of boys with 190 girls and you will see how completely the girls have taken over in 2-B.  I was told, too, that the girls are proving very satisfactory on all the jobs they are doing.  Right now all the jobs in the area are being done by girls except "picking up" cones.  Girls are tracking, cleaning machines, sweeping floors, and changing oil on winding machines.  True, they get a little dirty sometimes on these types of jobs but they take all that cheerfully and are not in the least disturbed by it.  Instead of the familiar uniform the girls wear slacks, which, if we do say so, look very nice indeed.

The girls on the wringers out in Plant 1 and 2-B Spinning Rooms are proving still further that this is no longer a man's world.  There are ten girls in 2-B now and they work three shifts just as the men do.  Plant 1 has eight girls on wringers, working two shifts, and from what they have to say about their job, it seems that they feel as though they have been missing something all these years by not having worked there all the time.  As I stood watching them sitting there in their new red chairs I must admit that it didn't look too difficult.

Plant 1 Textile and 2-A Reeling Room also have girls who are replacing boys.  The work in Plant 1 Textile is of course very similar to that in 2-B Textile, but in 2-A Reeling Room we watched with interest girls pushing "trojan horses" of rayon skeins into the Inspection Room nearby.

Supply Girls - Classic McCormick, Nettie Herrington

Girls from the office, too, are found in many strange places on the plant-we now have three girls at the Power Office and two at Maintenance.  Girls with a big bunch of checks going back through the plant to "pay off" are now a familiar sight.  This, too, has long been considered a man's job.

Most unusual of all the jobs that women now hold on the plant is that of our new woman photographer for Rayon Yarns.  So far as we know, this is the first time we have had a professional woman photographer on the plant and the Yarns is justly proud to have her on our staff. 

From the above account you will see that we are just now beginning to learn how best to develop and use the occupational skill of women in industry.  Of course, it's too early yet to say just what the outcome of this vast change will be, but personally, we think the women realize that they are soldiers of production and are willing to give "Their Best - No Less - for Victory."