ROSIE ALSO WELDED: WOMEN AND TECHNOLOGY IN SHIPBUILDING DURING WORLD WAR II

摘要

The shipbuilding industry during World War II serves as a case study of the relationship between women's employment and technological change. An analysis of merchant ship construction, and in particular the emergency shipyards demonstrates the relationship between the breakdown of skilled craft labor and the incorporation of women into non-traditional work. When women entered shipbuilding during the war, they were not employed in equal proportions by all shipyards or in all job categories. The transformation of shipbuilding from a craft-based industry to a mass production industry allowed women to be hired as semi-skilled labor. Women, as unskilled workers, did not enter the industry solely as a result of a demand for their labor. The work place first had to transformed to accommodate unskilled workers, which included women. While women were employed during the war on an "equal pay for equal work" basis, they were never accepted as a permanent addition to the shipyard work force. The unions, owners, and male workers perceived women's employment as a temporary expedient for the duration of the war. While accommodations were made which enabled women to work in the shipyards, these also ended with the war. After the war ended, the shipyards reverted to traditional craft labor. Both unskilled men and women who had only learned one aspect of a craft during the war, found themselves unemployed afterwards. An analysis of the shipbuilding industry during World War II shows the tenuous position of semi-skilled workers in the work place. These workers did not have enough skill or power to retain their high paying war jobs after the conflict ended. Women have traditionally been employed in the unskilled or semi-skilled categories, and have not been permitted to develop the skills which would enable them to maintain their new position within the labor force. World War II continued the process of the breakdown of craft labor and the employment of unskilled workers in the new semi-skilled tasks. Women only entered industries such as shipbuilding after this transformation had occurred.