The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-06-15
At This Time of National Necessity Women Craftsmen Can Release Men From Arduous Work, Says Miss Vaeria ~-eTN7N''


 Y7F anybody had asked me up'to few
 days ago. when I had the pleasure
 of meeting Miss Valeria Spinks,
 what woman draftsman looked like, I
 think I would probably have answered:
 "A man in petticoats" for somehow
 the mere word "draftsman' sounds so
 masculine and business like and so big
 and Amazonian that you scarcely ever
 associate femininity with it. But after
 l met Miss Spinks who as far as 1 can
 ascertain, is the only woman draftsman
 in Birmingham at the present time, 1 changed my mind
 Miss Valeria Spinks is not only very
 feminine in appearance-she slight and fair-but she is feminine in her ideas and in her conversation. She has head full of sense, and has boise and quite
 bit of reserve force, just the combina- ton to make a good draftsman, as
 imagine body must have a very level l head and quite bit of confidence in themselves, to make good in such a pro- fession.
 How did I happen to engage in drafts mahship as an occupation?' Miss Spinks repeated my question. T may as well | tell you from the first that I've been school teacher for a number of years, | and while 1 enjoyed teaching and the surroundings one gets tired of anything | after so long a time. So one day l mo- ticed an ad in The Age-Herald and an i swered it. The ad was for a woman ! draftsman in the office of consulting | civil engineer. l had had no training, | particularly in this, but I decided that
 would like to try my hand anyway,
 and see what 1 could do. l had studied
 during my college days at the Indus | trial, Institute and College at Columbus
 Miss, and later at the Peabody college
 Nashville, drawing in free hand, pen
 cil and color work, and while l have l found that that did not help me great 1 deal still it was a foundation. l really | didn't know what l was getung up 1 against so to speak, in accepting the DO sition, but l delighted so Tar "l.h | the experiment. There is a growing ue-
 mand, I understand, for women oral's i men all over the country today on ac- l count of the men having to answer the 1 roll call to war, and I see no reason why I women can't fill the position as well aS l men because the work is not trying. lhe | suggestion comes from no less a person l than MT C. Newell of the Southern rall- | way in a letter to thez Engineering | News Record that women draftsmen can | release men from more arduous work al 1 the present time. MT. Newell says Tn | his letter to the editor of the Engineer | ing Record:
 l Sir; Allow me to suggest through your 1 columns that a good many men mlsht De l released. at this time of national neces- sity to other departments of activity or a more arduous and exacting nature. 1T women were induced to enter the held ot dra fling. large percentage of this work | is purely a matter of routine and could 1 be turned over to women, who, as a whole should perform such work more quickly and with greater accuracy and neatness than the average male draftsman. The prospective salary they would earn at such work the fact that it would taHe no lengthy or elaborate preparation to equip them to perform large proportion | of if and the fact that they would work under environment excelling those or clerks stenographers, etc, should ofrer
 no mean attractions
 | '.Further the advent of women in this l capacity into the offices of engineers and | architects would in due time add features of economy, simplicity and beauty to structures that have hitherto remained undeveloped.'
 "So far the work I've done in Mir Rob- ert L. Tottens office, for 1t Is with nm l I have been connected as draftsman, | Miss Spinks said, "has not been working
 out mathematical problems, but later on,
 when I begin that sort of work and really
 am on the job, 1 think the work will 1 be very interesting. Of course l went