WOMEN AND AVIATION
AT a woman’s club not long ago I was asked to talk about opportunities for women in commercial aviation. When I had finished painting the picture as best I could, the chairman remarked,
“Well, you certainly spoiled all my illusions. I thought girls could get any jobs they wanted in aviation by just asking for them.”
In any discussion of the subject one must first separate actual flying and some special positions from all other types of employment in aviation. Also it will be necessary to explain that “aviation” includes aircraft divisions of various allied industries—such as precision instruments manufacture, for instance. Even with these widened boundaries the number of women employed in all is very small. Their proportion to men as given by a Labor Bureau survey is about one to forty-four. Some concerns do not employ women at all, and in those which do, they are often paid only about half as much as men.
Most of the feminine labor is used in the wing departments for sewing the fabric used in wing covering. There are, however, several women welders and some inspectors in engine planes. The Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia lists several women employees, and in the building of the dirigibles, the Shenandoah and the Akron, women were employed in the construction of the gas cells
140
