Evening star., 1942-05-02
Wives Of Drafted Men
To Get Preference in
War Factory Jobs
w. P. B. Official Soys
Government and Labor
Agree on Proposal
By MIRIAM GUTENBERG

BY MIRIAM vi
Assurance that wives of men
drafted into the armed forces
will have job preference was
given today following President
Roosevelt's disclosure that more
women throughout the country
are seeking jobs than there are
openings for them.
Miss Thelma McKelvey. chief of
the Women's Labor Supply Service,
Labor Division OF the War Produc-
ton Board. said joint effort would
be made on the part of the Govern
ment, organized labor and industry
not only to find jobs for the wives
of men in the service. but to give
the women assistance in finding the
job they can do best.
Most of the women now looking
for jobs will get them. she said, but
Nation wide mobilization of
women at this time would be mis-
leading" and result in false slim
ulation OF job seeking.
Both Miss McKelvey and other
experts on labor supply said some
communities are now looking for
women workers but this condition is
"spotty" throughout the country.
They have been advised against i'm
porting women because of the lack
Of housing facilities.
Baltimore to Hire 10000.
A spokesman for the Social Secu-
rity regional office here said that
Baltimore could use 10000 more
women within the next year, that
10000 women are already working in
production jobs there, mostly in air
craft. and that the women are being
hired from training schools before
they can even finish the courses.
On the other hand, women in
West Virginia and North Carolina
are begging for jobs. In those
States there is a surplus of male
labor due to the closing of plants
for lack of raw materials.
Miss McKelvey said a combina
ton of pressure and persuasion was
being used in various production
centers to expand job opportunities
for women, but neither organized
labor or industry will turn down
a man to take a woman If the man
is qualified
Government advisers are telling
industrial organizations to look
ahead to shortages as men are
taken into the Army and this is
opening more jobs for women, ac-
cording to Miss McKelvey. who re-
Gently returned from a New York
conference with personnel managers
who are now studying the poSsibili-
ties of women on the production
line.
If men with dependents are taken
into the Army, she pointed out,
their wives will be taken care OF
through the openings automatically
resulting.
Industry Holding Back.
Industry. she admitted, was hold
ing back against introducing women
in factories. but the needs of the
situation are changing their atti-
tude.
She expected great change
within the next three months and
estimated that about a million and
a half more women will be en-
ployed this year.
The rapidity of the change will
depend on how fast men are with
drawn from industry, how fast
plants are able to get materials and
the extent of expansion and "a
hour operations.
Industry, she said, is still in the
conversion stage. In six months
she predicted, Detroit will need
every woman who will take a job.
The decision to drop plans for
the voluntary registration of wom-
en- was based on the Tecommenda-
tions of the women members of
the Social Security Boards FEEDER
al Advisory Council for Employment
Security, which made its recon-
mendations to Federal Security Ad-
ministrator Paul V. McNutt short
ly after he told his first press con-
ference as War Manpower Commits
sion chairman that wOmanpOwer
would be modified.
The Advisory Council pointed out
that women now have the oppQr
tunity to register voluntarily in any
Of the 1900 local offices of the
United States Employment Serv-
ice. which already has registered
large numbers of women workers"
for whom jobs are not yet avail
able