Women in War Plants: Gun Inspection and Precision Assembly.
As it was generally agreed that women excelled at fine precision work and "delicate operations," they were preferred for the more easily "feminized" tasks within war industry. It was believed that a large natural endowment of patience gave women a greater capacity for monotonous and repetitive jobs, and that their "smaller more sensitive fingers" made them more dexterous. In addition to being "quick, deft, and tolerant of boredom," women were held to be excellently well suited to tasks involving close attention to detail and keen eyesight. Much of the inspection work in armament and munitions plants, for instance, was given to women. Many tasks in electronics, optics, and fine-instrument assemblage were performed by the possessors of these allegedly "feminine" traits.
This woman at an aircraft instrument plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is assembling an "oyster," a delicate device destined for inclusion in an air-speed indicator or an altimeter.
Courtesy: National Film Board Second World War Still Photograph Collection, National Photography Collection, Public Archives of Canada (PA-108050)
