TO: Mr. Harvey Allen, Labor Mobilization and Utilization
FROM: J. M. Parmelee
SUBJECT: Employment of Women
DATE: July 30, 1943
J. A. Jones Construction Company, Inc., Brunswick Shipyard
Brunswick, Georgia
The J. A. Jones Construction Company, Inc., Brunswick Shipyard, Brunswick, Georgia, employs a number of women who are being trained under an Advanced Worker Training Program which the Apprentice-Training Service of the War Manpower Commission assisted this company to formulate. Women are employed in all of the following crafts: Welding, Burning, Weld-making, Layout, Mold Loft, Shipfitting (small assemblies), Sheet Metal, Tool Room, Machine Shop, Electric Shop, and Material Checkers.
One of the women employed in the Brunswick Shipyard is Mrs. Nora T. Mullis, who works in the Machine Shop. Mrs. Mullis' husband was captured by the Germans, but was later recaptured by the American Forces, along with a party of Germans. There is one woman employed in this yard with a Ph.D. in history, and three others who have B.S. degrees. All are working as welders. There is also a former beauty contest winner employed in the yard.
The question was asked, "Why do women with college degrees want to work as Shipyard Welders?" The answer is, first, that welding is the "touted craft" of shipbuilding, and second, that many professional men are entering defense plants for one reason or another. Their wives often accompany them, and in order that living expenses, which have increased in proportion to the defense wage scale, can be met, they too, go to work. They often select welding, as an individual can advance themselves more rapidly in this craft.
Holfast Rubber Company, Ordinance Division
Atlanta, Georgia
. . . Fully half of the workers in the Holfast shell plant are women, among whom are former waitresses, cashiers, beauticians, nurses, and even actresses. Today these women are as skillful as the men . . . . One woman production worker . . . reached maximum production in two days. The normal time required to reach this degree of skill is from sixty to ninety days . . . ."
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Used with the permission of the Atlanta Historical Society, Library of Archives.
