Sex in the Factory

No problems like these bothered factory managers a year ago. But now, perhaps, a very shapely sweater girl wanders in to take her place in the swing shift. Low whistles follow her as she ambles down the aisle between machines. But a few minutes later a grey-haired factory chaperon catches her in the ladies' room. The chaperon is tactful (workers are hard to get). She admires the sweater girl's figure but says it would be a shame if because of her some man lost a hand under a punch press. Next night the girl comes back in other clothes.

This is only one of a dozen new problems since nearly two million women have gone to work in plane plants and other war industries. Some of the new problems --which are going to grow before 5,000,000 more women get war jobs:

> Some girls flirt at work. Douglas Aircraft (about 25% of whose employes are now women) had to close its Santa Monica plant's bomb shelter with heavy tar paper (to be broken in case of a real air raid) because swing-shift couples found it too handy for lovemaking during lunch.

> Some of them wear wrong clothes: forbidden peekaboo sweaters (bare at the waist) or transparent blouses. Many of them won't wear safe work suits, designed to prevent accidents. Most of them now wear slacks, but rebel at keeping their hair covered. Occasionally one gets scalped.

> They worry about their homes and children. "Women can perform 80% of all the war jobs now engaged in by men," claims Dr. Carey P. McCord, medical director of the Chrysler Corp., "but too many women are being absent from work because they must catch up on their housework."

> Some women take privileges that men can't get away with. They smoke when they are not supposed to, powder their noses on company time just before quitting, or waste time gossiping in gangs of two or more in the rest rooms.

On the plus side, many a factory manager has found that when women are good they are better than men. They are more painstaking as inspectors, are nimbler with their fingers, don't fret or get bored with repetitious work, are generally quicker, are particularly good in assembling small parts. Feminine dexterity acts as a speedup in many a plant where men are challenged to work harder in competition.

Some expedients tried by various aircraft companies to solve female labor problems:

> Curtiss-Wright in Buffalo is starting day nurseries in connection with its plants.

> Vultee and other plants employ Dorothy Dixes to watch over the girls and advise them on their emotional, marital and housekeeping problems.

> On a North American Aviation outdoor tool shed hangs a sign warning "No Profanity. Women Working Inside."

> Most plants test new girls for temperament, aptitude, I.Q., dexterity and health before placing them in their first job.

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