The Woman's Part: A Record of Munitions WorkYates, L. K.
History
The Woman's Part: A Record of Munitions Work
Yates, L. K.
Great Britain. Army -- Ordnance facilities; Weapons industry -- Employees; World War, 1914-1918 -- Women
No talking, I was informed, is allowed in that dockyard, during the
working hours on board, between the sailors or men labourers and the women
and there is constant supervision of the women employed. These work on
board in parties of 20-22, each party being under the care of a charge
hand. When the staff included three charge hands for supervision on board,
an inspectress was appointed for this special branch of the work. The
system seems to work well, and I noticed how the men and women had
evidently accepted each other as comrades. Coming into a secluded gangway
a man-labourer, who had finished his job, was unconcernedly shaving before
a square of mirror, while two or three women just beyond went on, just as
unconcernedly, tap, tapping at the electric fittings. There was no
chaffing, no 'larking', between the men and women, but a sense of
comradeship, such as one notices in a Co-education School.
The women on electric-wiring receive, in that dockyard, one month's
instruction on dummy bulk-heads before going on board; their
instructors--expert men--accompany them to the number of two to every
party of twenty or so, and remain with them for ten to twelve months.
After that, the women are able to work without an instructor, and I was an
eyewitness to this arrangement on a cargo vessel, where electric wiring
was also being undertaken.
Besides the work on board, women in dockyards are employed in the various
engineering shops where almost every description of construction and
repair work for vessels is undertaken. I have seen numbers of women at
work in such an electrical department, winding armatures, making parts for
firing-gear, polishing, or buffing and repairing electrical apparatus, &c.
The work in such a repair section is full of interest and variety. From
day to day the operators receive consignments of electrical apparatus
damaged on board by the elements, or worse. Great dispatch is needed, and
the women work with the utmost zeal and efficiency. I noticed them
undertaking such varying operations as lackering guards for lamps and
radiator fronts, repairing junction and section boxes, fire-control
instruments, automatic searchlights, &c., and they were turning out their
work, the foreman said, just like men. In the constructional department,
women are now employed in making bulkhead pieces, or metal-work of various
kinds, in oxy-acetylene welding, and occasionally in the foundry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account