The machine shop trades have traditionally been dominated by men. Until 1917, during World War I, women rarely worked in this field. At that time the manpower shortages created by the drafting of millions of men into the armed services opened the way for women into many semiskilled and skilled occupations; they proved themselves competent and productive. Women operated every sort of machine in the machine shops and worked on the bench, on assemblies, or as inspectors. However, when the war ended and the men returned, these women were phased out, gradually disappearing from the shops. The same situation occurred during World War II in 1941-1945. Over 6.7 million women were recruited and trained to fill a variety of vacancies in the nation's machine shops. For example, at the Boeing Aviation Corporation in Seattle, Washington, 45 percent of the production workers were women. Boeing had designed and was producing the B-17, the famous Flying Fortress, which proved to be the back bone of our Air Force. When World War II ended, the women were let go; but they had again proven that they could do competent work in the skilled trades.
In 1964 the Federal Civil Rights Act became law. This landmark legislation, enforced by the Federal Equal Opportunity Commission and by local agencies, forbids discrimination in jobs on the basis of sex, race, or creed. This act assured women of equal opportunities in any occupation they chose to enter. Coupled with this law was the Federal Equal Pay Act of 1963, which required equal pay for equal work. As a result, there has been a marked tendency for women to get into the skilled trades.
In 1960, the U.S. Census Bureau reported there were 6,685 women in various machine trades occupations. By 1970 this number had increased to 11,787, representing a growth of almost 80 percent. In 1978, the Statistical Abstract of the United States, published by the Census Bureau, reported there were about 15,000 women machinists plus 3,100 women toolmakers. And in 1994, the training department of the National Tooling and Machining Association estimated that there were approximately 28,000 women machinists and 6,000 women toolmakers employed in the industry.
While these numbers are but a small percentage of the total workers in the field, women do seem to have an increasing desire to get into machine shops, and the opportunities for training and employment are available.
However, certain factors must be mentioned here. There still remains some resistance by men in the trades to women competing with them for the skilled and better paying jobs. A woman breaking into the machine trades must be prepared to face a certain amount of male hostility. However, by proving themselves equal in ability and by tactful behavior, women can overcome this problem, as has been proven in many cases. Another factor is the matter of pay. Despite the Equal Pay Law mentioned above, some tendency persists to pay women less than men, although both may be doing similar work. But this, too, is being overcome by women who are alert to the provisions of the law and who apply to the federal and local commissions set up to enforce it.
OTHER INDUSTRIES
Machine shops are so intimately connected with manufacturing and production industries that a person with thorough training as a machinist may find numerous opportunities in plants outside the machine or metalworking industry. For example, because of a thorough familiarity with machines, tools, materials, and processes, a machinist might become a maintenance worker in a factory where numerous machines of all types manufacture many products. In fact, it is estimated that one fourth of the all-around machinists in the United States are employed in repairing and otherwise maintaining the mechanisms which pour out the vast array of our industrial materials. These are usually interesting jobs with a great deal of variety, and they pay good wages, especially in some of the more highly specialized fields, such as textiles. Similarly, our transportation systems, such as the railroads, bus lines, trucking fleets, and airlines also employ maintenance and repair machinists.
FRONT OFFICE
Machinists need not confine themselves to the actual forming of metal products. Because of their background and training, they can take off their overalls or apron, put away their tools, and go into the front office of the metalworking plant as a production manager, routing operations through the factory, expediting the work, and in general supervising all production or some of its aspects. They may also write operation sheets, indicating how parts and assemblies are to be made, specifying the operations, machines, and tools. In this case they are known as methods persons or planners. You will find many want ads for this type of worker in the newspaper.
DESIGNING
In the smaller shops with no separate designing or drafting department, the toolmakers generally do their own tool designing. As a rule, they are given a blueprint of a specific part and instructed to make a drill jig, a milling fixture, a die, or any other type of tool needed for producing the piece. They then proceed to make some sketches or drawings and build the tool in accordance with these ideas.
Larger plants, however, divide these functions and employ tool designers who make the drawings for the tools needed for production from which the machinists can then work. Because of their background, the machinists are often the ideal tool designers, and many of them actually leave the shop for the drawing board. From tool designing and methods planning it is but a step to tool engineering, a most responsible planning post in manufacturing, which, however, requires further technical training.
LARGE MACHINERY
There also are numerous openings for trained machinists outside the actual confines of the shop. Manufacturers of large equipment and machinery, for example, use experienced employees to erect their machinery in the field. This offers an opportunity for travel and variety. Such firms as the General Electric Corporation and Westinghouse make large steam turbines which, after testing in the plant, are disassembled, sent to the place where they are to be used (which may be anywhere in the world), and erected under the guidance of supervisors from the home plant.
These people are generally machinists who have spent many years in the manufacture of these machines. In the same manner, the Harris Corporation sends its experts or outside machinists its large printing presses. There are numerous opportunities of this nature, and if this is the type of life you would like, you can seek employment with these manufacturers of large mechanical equipment and work toward this goal.
DEMONSTRATING AND SELLING
Makers of machine tools, automatic machinery, and equipment of all sorts also employ their experts for demonstrating and servicing their products. When a machine shop purchases new machines, an employee from the vendor will come in to show how these may be operated to best advantage. Again, this employee is usually a machinist who has worked for many years making the equipment and who possesses those qualities which make her or him valuable as a representative of the company. This, too, is a job to which you can aspire if you like traveling and meeting new situations continually.
Selling is often a natural sequence to this sort of work, and many a mechanic, trained as a demonstrator or public representative, finally winds up selling the product. Of course, it takes a certain type of person for success in this field. The characteristics that make a good salesperson are not always possessed by the average shop machinist. However, if you do have these traits, there is a way open to you from the machine shop to the sales department.
All this by no means exhausts the possibilities for the well-trained machinist with a good technical background. The openings cited have been listed as possibilities to steer your thinking about the future. As an example of what can happen, a friend started his career as a machinist, became a tool designer, and then became a maintenance man with a company that distributed domestic oils and oil burner and furnace equipment. His mechanical and technical experience and certain personality traits led him into selling the equipment. He ultimately became sales manager and a partner in the business. And this is by no means a unique occurrence.
If you acquire the proper training, technical background, and work experience, you will virtually be able to chart your own advancement in the machine shop trades.
