Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1942-03-28

Negro women workers as a group
share the handicaps common to
women workers in the war produc-
ton program, Miss Anderson point
ed out. Women have not had ade-
quate opportunities to secure the
training necessary to qualify them
selves for many types of industrial
jobs which they could do very well"
she said.
'"The number of highly skilled
women workers available for war
industries is relatively small. AS
unskilled or semi-skilled workers,
women can qualify only for those
Jobs which require intelligence and
manual dexterity but no more than
a brief learning period. Thus far
in our war production program the
greatest numbers of women are
working in just such jobs but con-
ditions are changing rapidly. Wom-
en- can and will be doing a greater
variety of jobs as industry expands,
as more women are trained and as
more men go into the armed forces. y
WORK IN ARSENAL
AS indicative of new trends in
employment practices affecting Ne
gro women, Miss Anderson referred
to war industries in the Middle At
lantic, New England, Middle West
ern, and Southern States.
Negro as well as white women are
at work on essential war jobs in
the Government-owned Picatinny
IN. j., Frankford pa, and Edge
wood MD arsenals. In New Eng
land, a.. New Haven small arms
ammunition plant reports that almost
per cent of the approximately l.
100 Negro workers employed by the
company are women. In indiana
Negro women sewing machine oper-
ators are working in a bag-loading
plant.
A st. Louis small-arms ammuni-
ton plant still under construction
expects eventually to employ 1000
Negro men and women production
workers. Another new munitions
works in Illinois plans to hire Negro
men and women on operations.
TREND TOWARD WOMEN
An aircraft company in Memphis
anticipated that about one-fifth of
it's $500 production employees will
be Negroes but did not specify how
many would be women The trend
in aircraft assembly is toward great
er use of women.
There will be new opportunities
for Negro women in the garment
industry in some places, particular
ly in the Great Lakes region where
the demand for power-sewing- mach
inc operators now generally exceeds
the supply. One Chicago concern re-
ports adding a complete shift of
Negro women
Turning to the farm front, Miss
Anderson said that both Negro and
white women with farm experience
will be needed desperately to help
met the serious labor shortage in
agriculture Negro women will have
decisive role in the battle for
food" she said. I'm one great agri-
cultural section of the country
which includes twelve Southern
States (and the District of Column
bia), Negro women constitute about
40 per cent of all the woman labor
force. In these States the proportion
of Negro women workers varies from
about one-sixth to almost two-thirds
of all women workers.
OTHERS CARRY ON
Negro nurses, home economists,
teachers and other trained profess
sional women are carrying on their
work in ways which strengthen the
Nation in this time of war.
mo one minimizes the discourage
ments and difficulties which Negro
women face in the job market. In
some industries and some areas the
Negro woman's future is brighter
than in others. For all women, re-
CARELESS Of race, pre-employment
and in-plant training opportunities
have been too limited and made
quate to meet wartime production
demands, and this situation must be