Evening star., 1940-10-13
Women Are Urged
To Prepare 10 Take
Defense Positions
Draft Will Increase
Job Opportunities,
Miss Anderson Says
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
Miss Mary Anderson, director Of
the Women's Bureau in the Labor
Department, predicts that the ma
tional defense program will alter the
industrial status of women.
She urges women to be. alert to
this for their own good and for
the good of the defense program.
When Uncle Sam got into the
first World War, women bobbed their
hair, invaded industry-and stayed
there. Miss Anderson thinks the
draft will have an early effect on
employment of women.
Allowing for the fact that this is
peace-time conscription and rearm-
ament for defense and not mobiliza-
tion for war, she said yesterday the
Women's Bureau has dug into rec
ords on employment of women in
industry in 1914-1918-and also how
well women kept their toe-hold in
the post-World War period.
Against this background Miss
Anderson forecast that as men 60
now into military training and as
industry is stimulated by the re-
armament program there will be an
increase in the number of employ
ment opportunities for older men
and women.
Labor Surplus Now.
Miss Anderson said there was q
surplus of labor in industry at pres
ent, but added she expected this
slack, especially in skilled labor. to
be taken up. Reports now are that
women with training are finding
employment" she said.
She recommended that women get
preliminary training for future op-
portunities.
"Of course such training cannot
take the place of training on the
job" she said, but women should
at least know what a factory ma
chine looks like if they intend to
operate one"
Advice Offered.
Only by having preliminary knowl-
edge and training can women expect
to get a break with men in wages
and placement, she said. OF women
who write into the Women's Bureau
for advice she said:
I'VE advise them first to register
with their home town or State en-
ployment Office, then to get indus
trial training at night schools, take
vocational courses or courses offered
by such organiza tions as the Ma.
tional Youth Administration"
1t might be timely for women
to consider the possibilities OF pro-
fessional careers in fields-engineer-
ing, aeronautics, map-making-usu-
ally thought of as masculine
grounds. Miss Anderson said.
The factory doors have been wider
open for women than since before
the first World War. 1t may be
after this world upset there will be
women heading engineering firms,
building bridges, skyscrapers.
Added Manpower to Be Needed.
AS the young men first in train
ing come home and take back their
Jobs, other men will go into train
ing. In addition, increased indus
trial operations, new industries, will
need added manpower-and woman
power-as the present rearmament
plan develops.
Benedict Crowell, Assistant Sec
retary of War. director of NUM-
tions. in study on Americas Mu-
nitions l917-18,' reported that the
industries that sprang into promi-
nence upon this country's entrance
into war-those concerned with ar
maments-were mot conspicuous
employers of women labor"
The number of women in the iron
and steel industry constituted less
than 3 per cent of the working
force in 1914 and but little more in
1916, Mr.. Crowell found. During
the war the proportion Of women
after the first draft was double the