Women's War Work at• a Midland Ordnance Depot
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A Big R.A.O.C. Establishment Finds that Women Can Satisfactorily Tackle Many Jobs Hitherto Done by Men
How much of man's work can woman do? The question is of special importance in war time, and a contribution to its answer, with particular reference to motor vehicles, can be gained from flit experience of one of the principal R.A.O.C, establishments, which finds employment for a large A.T.S. unit.
Broadly, the view taken seems to be that if a woman cannot do a certain class of work just as well as a man, she should not be given that work to do at all. In other words, woman is not a partial substitute or a second-best. Either she is a complete replacement or she is right out of the picture.
Obviously, this calls for careful consideration of the work to which A.T.S. women shall be allocated. In many cases, of course, there is no doubt. Feeding the entire garrison and working a dozen or more cookhouses providing as many as 30 meal-sittings every 24 hours—that is a line in which nobody would 4hesitate to employ women, but in the main work of this huge depot a decision is often much
less easy. That much progress has been made in this matter of replacing men by women is indicated by the fact that now, instead of indenting for so many soldiers or so many auxiliaries, it is not uncommon to apply for suchand-such a number of " bodies," a term which conveniently avoids any reference to the sex of the workers in question.
Turning to particular cases, the depot includes' a tyrereconditioning factory which deals with every military size of cover and tube. Four classes of work are undertaken —re-treading of worn covers, repairing of damaged covers, repairing inner .tubes, and fitting tyres to wheels. Much of this involves the lifting of heavy weights, an activity to which the female anatomy is not particularly well suited, No attempt is made to let two women lift what one man could handle; that is left entirely. to men. Women are employed, however, for placing the layers of new rubber on to the old carcase, ready for the mould. They deal efficiently, too, with tube repairs.
On the other hand, men place the covers in the moulds and handle them thereafter. The repair of damaged covers also is man's work, for reasons which are clear from a consideration of the effort involved. First the damaged portion of the tread or wall is cut clean out by hand, a strong wrist being one requirement. After more handling, during which the carcase is strengthened at that point, the cover is lifted on to a fixture with a sound part of the tyre at the bottom, Around this is poured molten speller so as to form a mould not merely of the `correct pattern, but also with the right amount of wear. Until the metal has set, the tyre attempts to float in it and must be held firmly down — no light job, especially in the case of a really big cover. Then it must be lifted and turned to bring the damaged parts into the mould for vulcanization. .,Finally, not only the repaired tyre, but also the spelter mould must be lifted out, the latter bein'g melted down for further use.
In the mechanical repair shops there is a great deal that is naturally woman's work. Instrument repair, for example, is well suited to a woman's hands, and so is the repair of much electrical equipment. The operation of various machine tools here, as in industry generally,. is done by women. Apart from all that, however, experience is showing that women can handle some jobs which are not so obviously in their own sphere.
For example, bent motorcycle frames or forks can be straightened. The work may not look very strenuous, but it does call for a good deal of muscular effort, as was discovered when it was first attempted by a woman. Inve:tigation by a slim A.T.S. sergeant is showing, however, that when tackled in the right way this job is within a woman's capacity.
In another shop, tanks of various sorts and sizes unclago the process of " Desertization. '‘) or of " Arcticization." In other words, they are prepared for the Middle East or for Russia. This gives the A.T.S. quite a lot of useful work to do, as can be seen, for instance, from the preparation required before shipment to Russia.
Installing special jelly-acid batterie j a may be too heavy a job for women, but they can attend as well as 'anybody to the anti-freeze requirements of the cooling system, the very thin oil needed everywhere, and the hermetic sealing of all openings with fabric and liquid rubber solution. This operation is designed to exclude sea moisture during transit and, as an additional .safeguard: some 20 small bags of soda-lime are disposed around the interior of the tank to absorb any moisture which may condense in the colder atmosphere. Incidentally, the sealing adhesive is not too good for the hands, so a ration of what amounts to a special hand lotion is issued to the girls engaged on this work.
Women have been employed as tracers in drawing offices for • years past, but in the D.O. of this ordnance depot they make also the original drawings, These, it is true, are concerned less with the design of machinery than of the mass packing of spare parts and the special containers needed for them, but it is evident that much necessary technical drawing can be performed adequately by wothen.
Recording Works Progress
Similarly, they are very useful in the recording of workg progress. The system used is simple but comprehensive, and is to be extended to all other ordnance depots. Some of its features might well be applied to large civilian shops engaged on repairs. Notable in its simple equipment is a sort of travel-ling board which carries miniature job cards to sh,ow how long any particular work has been in the shops.
Along the top of a fixed framework on an office wall are the numbers 1 to 31. Underneath is an endless " belt" of vertical laths hinged together, rolltop-desk fashion, which is moved forward by one lath every. day. Each lath carries a numberof hooks on which can be hung the miniature job cards or taffies. These are placed under No. 1 on the day that the corresponding job goes into the works, and thus the time taken on a job can be seen by a glance at the figure under which the tally hangs. There are, of course, various other sections of the board which, together with such useful devices as coloured clips, indicate relevant facts.
Emphasis must be laid on one aspect of this wide employment of women. Total war, as we have seen in many directions, makes cost a comparatively unimportant matter. When a vehicle is worn or damaged, for instance, the question is not whether it is worth repairing, but whether it can be repaired. Much that in peace would be written off is now given new life by much labour. If cost be no longer the deciding factor, however, those responsible must sometimes decide whether a certain quantity of labour would be better employed in repairing one really bad case or two vehicles less seriously out of order. Only if there be ample labour can they reclaim all three.
By using women as well as men wherever possible, the military authorities go far to reach that happy state. By sending many vehicles to civilian. workshops all over the country, they go farther still. It may be that these commercial concerns could themselves take the matter another stage forward
• by employing women for much work which, hitherto, has been done by men.