Repository: UIHistories Project: SWE - Proceedings of the First International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists [PAGE 33]

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jobs and levels open to trained womanpower is greater. The changing nature of jobs opens more opportunities for women. Dr. Parrish says: "The application of mathematical techniques and computer technology to production processes, the shift in emphasis from production to research and development, the development of automated systems of information search, storage and retrieval have combined to bring about a change in employment from shop to office, from the practical to the theoretical, a context more favorable to women." A case in point is engineering. Not long ago this profession was among those deemed least suitable for women. Today there are at least enough women to constitute a beach-head, probably over 7,000 active. Even so, percentage-wise this is not impressive; it seems probably that Professor Parrish may be vindicated in the future. Certainly the general picture is one of women flooding into the labor force in volume. The most recent bulletin of the Population Reference Bureau has a somewhat current review of the situation. Nearly three-fifths of the growth of the labor force in the Fifties occurred among women, although they were only one-third of all workers. Women 45 years of age or over accounted for 5870 of the growth. In this same decade, the female labor force expanded by 4.8 million, whereas the male labor force expanded only 3.5 million. Over half of the female labor force were working wives. The number of single women in the labor force actually declined. The inference from these remarks seems to be clear. A combination of economic need and present mores, including circumstances conducive to work in our modern highly gadgeted society, are drawing more and more women into the labor force. The changing technology of our day is demanding more people with higher skills and professional competence. But up to now the professional level at which women enter the labor force is well below what it might and should be. The missing element has been appropriate guidance and career planning. Women's organizations and other interested groups will need to face the realities of intermittent employment, for family raising, for example, on the part of women, and plan accordingly. Concerted action to conserve womanpower and to foster the best use of professionally competent women will be necessary. Steps have been taken in the recent past to bring out rational programming for women, by such organizations as the AAUW, and the Carnegie Corporation cooperating with Mills College, the American Council on Education, and others. Programs for retraining women have been organized, for example, at Rutgers-Douglas, at Radcliffe, and at the University of Delaware. However, so far the efforts have fallen short of the considerable need for action. For years, those who have written and thought about manpower problems in the technical fields have been unanimous in urging more use of womanpower. There seems a considerable consensus that no substantial resistance to hiring exists in types of employment where the nature of the job is not inhospitable to women. It would seem a particularly propitious time for concerted action which could penetrate to the heart of the problem. This is at the level of family attitude, community mores, and in the practices of counselors and guidance officers. There is, it seems at present, a favorable time for an effective push for more women in the professions of engineering and the sciences. Perhaps one should say here that as far as womanpower in science and technology is concerned, there is likely to be no over supply, but there is definite under-utilization. 1-20