The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-12-14
WOMEN IN
INDUSTRY

Dig SJcel HllllS anu ldDilCdIliis s
mills in the Youngstown, Ohio area
are reported preparing to oper
their doors TO women war workers
-welders, machinists and others
Now in stores, offices and homes,
many of the women stepped into
mems jobs in World War ii and
helped set the highest production
records ever made in Youngstown,
The Youngstown public school
system already has given refresher
training courses to about 90 World
War II women welders to prepare
them for work in one Youngstown
plant that has been swamped with
defense orders.
"And," explained Walter E.
Barnhill, director of adult educa-
tion and supervisor Of trade and
vocational training, "we're ready
to begin on a moments notice to
give refresher courses or new
training to thousands Of other
women to fit them for the mill
jobs"
The employment of women in
scores Of jobs normally reserved for
men is being made necessary, ex-
planned A. Z. McCully, manager of
the Ohio State Employment Service
office at Youngstown, by the acute
labor shortage beginning to pinch
the area.
McCully said that the mills will
either hire women or will have a
trough time" meeting commitments
on defense orders and that the
number of men going back into the
military service is really begin
ming to hurt" in the Youngstown
district.
Normally, the Youngstown area
has the smallest percentage of wo-
men in the labor force Of any major
city in Ohio. Youngstown is a
heavy-industry community with s
huge steel mills and numerous
steel-fabricating plants. Outside of
office jobs, fewer than a dozen con-
Germs normally employ women in
shops or factories.
During World War II, however,
Ohio relaxed its laws governing
the employment of women so that
they could work round-the-cIock
shifts, avoid the usual rest periods
and fit into continuous-operation
industries.
At least 1900 women got indus
trial jobs in Youngstown-jobs as
crane operators or crane followers,
welders, plant clerks, painters,
bricklayers, laborers and section
hands.
When the men returned from
military service the women workers
returned to their homes or to jobs
as dOmestics, stenographers, school
teachers, retail store clerks, ETC.,
jobs paying far from the $500 to
$500 monthly earnings they had
received IN the mills.
Organized labor's many accom-
plishments in improving conditions
of women workers in this country
were vividly described by Pauline
NJ. Newman, educational director
of the Union Health Centers of
New York City and other trade
unionists at the recent annual con-
yention of the National Council of
Negro Women in Washington.
In the keynote address at the
session which discussed "The His
tory of Women in the Labor Move
ment," Miss Newman traced Am
erican working women'S lengthy
struggle for economic emancipa-
tion, starting with the courageous
action of the girls in Lowell, Mass,
over 1C0 years ago who paraded
through the streets in protest
against wage cuts.
Delegates to the councils con-
vention also heard Mazda Springer,
New York dressmakers' business
agent, and Mabel Fuller of the
Local 62 Education Department
describe the many opportunities
provided by American trade unions
. particularly the International
Ladies' Garment Workers Union
to women of all races and creeds
for economic, social and political
development.