Se 4 LABOR’S VOICE FOR VICTORY VANCOUVER, B.C., WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1942 A few months ago the women working in the shipyards were clerks, stenographers, housewives. Today they’re doing a man’s job. By KAY GREGORY OME 150 women in North Burrard shipyard are proving very effectively today that women can do many of the avy jobs in war industry just as well as men. They are owing they are ready and able to do their part for victory some of the toughest jobs in industry. They are passing yets, bolting up, driving jitneys, bolt threading—almost ery kind of a job. In fact, as the foreman remarked to me, they are catch- g on to things very quickly and “turn out a pretty good 1b? | The most unique job as yet talxen on by girls in the yards is 7et-passins. Several young girls have made this their job in jrth Burrard, catching red-hot rivets in their little buckets » nonchalantly as if they were playing ball. In fact, one re- arked that she figured a good Jacrosse player would make a fod rivet-passer. Marion Rourke, for instance, is a pretty youngster, clad in iveralls and a tin hat, with a flashing smile and a soft Irish Fogue. # “Catching rivets doesn’t bother me any,” she told me, al- ‘ough she has only been on the job about two weeks. She iid a round, brown-ringed hole burnt in the lapel of her khaki reralls, where a rivet had hit her instead of the bucket. “What ‘you do miss one?” I asked. “Well, I just miss it,” she laughed, viously not all alarmed at the? fosspect of red hot rivets flying jund her. she said, “and I'm certainty not bored with this one,’ again show- hey’re Building Ship We had to come away from the ip where she was working to es- se the thundering rivet guns ich teok one’s words and drown- them in a torrent of sound. “Oh, a get used to the noise,’ Marion d jShe was dietician in a hospital fore she took up rivet-passing, d likes her new job much bet- . despite the danger. Marion said 2d taken a machinisi’s course a would like, if possible, to keep that trade. “But I may get a msfer later sometime,’ she said, yiously content to think that she ‘S, at any rate, “doing something” the country’s war effort on the duction front. =reof of how war affects every ase of life is in the occupations jich the women followed before sy started in shipyard work, One worked ing the conscious response of wom- en to the need of their country in this erisis. She was operating a precision grinder, work requiring some skill, although as she explained, skill was mainly needed to set up the ma- chine rather than operate it. This she was gradually learning and had been on the job about a week. ‘ e@ OST of the women have been in the yard between five and six weeks. They are part of a group specially selected, with the co-op— eration of the national selective Service, for steadiness and ability to stand the strain of heavy grind- ing work. Ages range from well over 25 to over 50. A few have in war industries during the last war. Some have husbands overseas, others work in the yards them- selves, some have children depend- ent on them, though generally they are fortunate enough to have a Sis- ter or mother who will take care of their homes and families. All are part of a vast army of women ready to step into the men’s shoes, to keep the ships hitting the water. One young girl, Fredress Mc- Pherson, has two children, a boy, five years old, and a girl nearly four. She works in the rigging loft, patching tarpaulin. Her husband also works in the yards, on grave- yard shift, so the only time they have together is evenings. “As far as I’m concerned,” Mrs. McPherson said, “that isn’t any different than it used to be. I was alone all day while he slept and just saw him evenings then. But he thinks, maybe, he likes to know Im around all day, even when he is asleep.”’ Mrs. MePherson’s mother looks a Tailliner; now she is a helper the copper shop, calmly pounding oper pipes amid indescribable din. -¢ knew what she was doing, too, d above the noise, tried to make + understand all the complex op- ations of transforming copper sets into pipes. Another young and attractive girl, I's. Mugford, was holding a cop- ir fixure over the heat te soften so her immediate boss could ape it. Mrs. Mugford is one who irks around the freighters in the {ld and noise of rivet guns, on ys when the interminable rain ikes any outside work miserable, fog and cold and frost, or in 2 midsummer heat when furnaces the shops must be well-nigh bearable. Several other girls work in the 2chine shops, relatively peaceful. 2re I found one woman who was eviously a law stenographer. "I was very bored in that job,” VEN a year ago few thought that women would be doing this kind of work, but this passer-girl exPnss red hot rivets all day long with the same efficiency as the boy she released for other work. Several hundred women are now working in Vancouver's four shipyards. after the family. She used to keep While they are given some con- a store and Fredress would help. sideration, as far as possible, to as- “T like this much better,’ Fredress sist physical wellbeing, women now said. She has been working about working in the yards have to stand five weeks and thinks she will stay up to stiff conditions, exposure, and “while there is work to be done. work just as hard as their men “At least I'm doing something use- fellow-workers. ful,” she said. ; And they are proving they can Qne other young girl working in som the machine shop, expressed in very E : £ simple words the new outlook o Sesine 19e, Gail. na as Wee Th TASER pleased with the way women had I believe that a woman, no mat- tajen hold of the jobs and “caught @ ARRY RYAN, foreman of the ter what she has done before, if Gn pretty quick.” she works for even a short time In| “anythine that specially inter- industry, would have a broader in- o