Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

Women In War Jobs RCA VICTOR, WITH PURDUE UNIVERSITY COOPERATING. TO TRAIN GIRL TECHNICIANS AS NEED FOR VfOMEN WORKERS GROWS By F. H. Kirkpatrick Personnel Plainiiiig and Research, RCA Victor Division THAT "infinite variety" of which the poet sang concerning women is being demonstrated anew in a rather startling way by the experience of war production indus- tries in the employment of women at work they have never done be- fore. This hiring has been going on apace for the last year. Up to a short time ago it was on a more or less limited basis, created by the growing man-power shortage. Now the Government tells us that even more w'oman-power must be em- ployed and that by the end of 1943 we shall have 18,000,000 women in jobs in all industries. Anticipating this, the RCA Vic- tor Division some months ago ini- tiated a carefully planned, compre- hensive program to expand its al- ready considerable force of women workers. While this steppinp-up of the proportion of women workers grows out of the war situation, the employment of women represents no change in company policy. In the Harrison plant, for instance, women made up 69 percent of all employees as long ago as 19.37. Plans for the employment and training of additional women work- ers, then, relate to their use in in- creasing proportions throughout all plants, and in job classifications en- tirely new to women. These plans are now in full swing at all six plants of the company: Camden, Harrison, N. J., Lancaster, Penn., Bloomington and Indianapolis, In- diana, and Hollywood, Calif., with variations to fit the different condi- tions at each plant. Perhaps our most ambitious pro- gram is now in the course of or- ganization. This program is de- signed to supply us with a force of trained women radio technicians and is being carried out in coopera- tion with Purdue University in In- diana. The plan calls for a group of eighty girls, between the ages of 18 and 22, to study at Purdue with the curriculum "custom-built" for RCA. The intensive program at Pur- due provides for two terms of twen- ty-two weeks each. There will be forty hours a week of classroom work or supervised study. At the completion of the course, the girls will be qualified for immediate as- signment in our plants for quality control work and as Engineering Aides. The girls will be selected from our own plants and from col- leges and universities. Considered employees-in-training, they will be paid a salary while attending school in addition to having their univer- sity expenses paid. Unsuspected Skills The training activities in opera- tion at our plants, though only in its early stages, have turned up abundant evidence that there were many things industry didn't know- about women. One of these things is that they have a world of here- tofore unsuspected skills, constitut- ing a storehouse of producing power on which we have hardly started to draw. Among these skills are the ability to do exacting tasks, such as working to very close tolerances. With their delicate sense of touch and supple wrists, they also assem- ble tiny parts with infinite care, undismayed by the monotony of the work. These characteristics are of MISS FRANCES R. WHITNEY, WHO HAS JOINED RCA VICTOR DIVISION AS CON- SULTANT AND ADVISOR ON THE PERSON- NEL PLANNING AND RESEARCH STAFF. primary importance now, when the nation is at war and must put forth the maximum of its enei-gies to win in the shortest possible space of time. But another discovery has been made of even greater impor- tance in the long run, not only to women, but to the national welfare. This is that women can contribute a great deal to industry in super- visory capacities hitherto denied them, as well as in ideas to improve manufacturing techniques. The career woman, in other words, is no longer to be monopo- lized by the professions. There is a place for her in the shops as well as in the offices of industry. There is no limiting "top" to the respon- sible job open to her. In RCA Vic- tor, as a matter of fact, she is being encouraged in this direction by a systematic upgrading process. Every woman employee is eligible for aptitude tests and personnel an- alysis. If this shows she might do better at something other than her present job, she is given intensive special training and put to w-ork at the new task. As a consequence of this, many girls who were doing clerical and stenographic work in the offices a RADIO AGE 7]