Many women also took Engineering, Science, and Management War Training courses in cartographic or topographic drafting or photogrammetry (the making of maps from aerial photographs) in order to qualify for civil service positions. In the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and the United States Geological Survey, more than 350 women were employed in such work during the war; and in the Army Map Service, there were many more.

The duties of women employed in such positions varied with their training and experience. For example, at the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, there were more than 50 women with some training in drafting employed under the title "engineering draftsman" who did fine line drafting of charts on acetate, a transparent plastic that is later photographed for reproduction. This work included the drafting of contours, streams, roads, and other topographic features, each drawn to specified width and in accurate placement. Women with additional training were given more responsible positions. One woman, for example, made the final criticism of large scale topographic maps to determine if each map met the specifications adopted as standard for the national mapping program. She was a former artist who took a college course in photogrammetry and mathematics at the outbreak of the war.

Women who entered as trainees with no prior experience in drafting were given instruction in the training school maintained at the Survey for new draftsmen. There, two women, serving as assistant instructors, taught the fundamentals of cartographic drafting and the specialized methods used in the Survey. One woman who completed the course ultimately worked on the compilation of instrument approach and landing charts from field surveys and aerial photographs, to be used by aircraft in approaching and landing at airfields in the United States.

Women were engaged in drafting work in other agencies such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Department of Agriculture, and the Civil Aeronautics Administration. The Engineers Corps, the Signal Corps, and Army Ordnance in the War Department also trained women as draftsmen.

As in industry, Engineering, Science, and Management War Training programs were used to supply initial training which was often supplemented by on-the-job training. Rock Island Arsenal, for example, gave 2 hours of classroom training weekly for 6 months to its draftsmen. The course covered blueprint reading (angles, measurements, dimensions, title and notes) and drawing (titles, lettering, use of square and angles, straight lines, compass exercises, tangent arcs, dotted lines, section lines, sketching in orthographic projection, reading by modeling, auxiliary projection). On the other hand, a few

women with prior experience or training were placed immediately on the job and trained by supervising draftsmen. A young woman with a degree in household administration but with an additional 30 semester hours in landscape architecture, for example, was hired early in the war to do drafting on building revisions for Army cantonments. She also had the responsibility for checking purchase orders against lists of required equipment for each building or base in a certain district.

Some of the women who entered military service were also trained for and assigned to drafting work. Next to that of medical technician, the principal technical assignment of WAC's was with the Engi neer Corps and Ordnance, where they worked as mechanical draftsmen, lithographic draftsmen, and tracers. In 1944, draftsman (mechanical, structural, electrical, topographic) was listed among the classifications in which additional WAC's were needed. In the Marine Corps Reserve, 12 women were assigned as draftsmen. In the WAVES, enlisted women seamen prepared and corrected maps and charts. For example, as draftsmen in the Navy's Hydrographic Office they compiled and revised hydrographic charts and assisted in the selection of source material for the preparation of such charts.

A number of civilian women were trained in drafting courses offered by the public vocational schools. In the all-day trade courses in drafting, between 200 and 300 women were enrolled in each of the war years as compared with 3 women in 1939-40 and 8 in 1940-41. Although many of these were trained as tracers or detailers rather than as fullfledged draftsmen, such beginning positions put them in line for drafting jobs if they took further training or showed unusual aptitude. As noted earlier many engineering aids were assigned to the more difficult drafting work.

Earnings and Advancement

The war needs increased the salary scale of draftsmen in Government and in industry. Scattered information indicates that women in industrial drafting jobs averaged about $2,500 a year in 1947; the range was from $1,500 to $3,600. Chief draftsmen or designerdraftsmen in large firms earned as much as $4,000 to $5,500, but women almost never reach such positions.

In the Federal Government, beginning salaries for draftsmen of differing levels of training or experience varied from $1,440 to $2,600 before the war. During the war, with overtime pay, earnings on these salaries ranged from $1,752 to $3,163. In 1947, the basic entering salaries for the same jobs ranged from $1,954 to $3,397.

Advancement from the subprofessional level of draftsman to professional status as an engineer, architect, or cartographer is rare,

except for those who already have or acquire later the academic training usually required for professional status. But women of unusual ability in subprofessional positions in the Federal Government have sometimes been promoted to supervisory positions which do not require professional status.

The Outlook

The large number of persons who trained for drafting work during the war, in and outside of the armed forces, in relation to the reduced postwar need for draftsmen (as compared with that created by war production) suggests that the supply of draftsmen will for some time be greater than the demand, although there may be shortages in certain specialized types of drafting. The exceptionally large number of women enrolled in engineering schools also indicates that many of them, if they do not complete their engineering courses or if there is an oversupply of engineers, are potential draftsmen.

This darkens the outlook for women in drafting work. The situation has already been reflected in more reports of open hostility to women on the part of men in this field than in others in which women are an even smaller minority. One outstanding girl working in a machine-tool plant was urged by the chief engineer to stay on, but the men draftsmen, older men for the most part, literally drove her away by accusing her of "taking a man's job away." She left to train for teaching. A university placement officer reported that girls leave drafting because the men "make life miserable for them." The turnover of women in drafting during the war appeared to be unusually high, perhaps for this reason.

However, some women have so excelled in the neatness and appearance of their drawings and have proved so painstaking on the simpler phases of the work that many employers say they will always employ women. A Pittsburgh firm after releasing women draftsmen at the end of the war has called some of them back. However, the volume of returning servicemen seems to be unusually high in drafting work, and some firms were not able to keep any women draftsmen even though they wished to, because of their obligations to former employees returning from military service. In the 81 large industrial firms and 18 commercial laboratories visited in connection with this study, 20 employed one or more women in 1946, the approximate total approaching 300. Although the number was considerably under the estimated 1,000 to 1,500 employed by these same firms during the war, it was considerably more than the prewar number. Actually 15 of the 20 had never employed women as draftsmen until World War II. Four of the twenty intended to replace women

with men as soon as the women left voluntarily. Although women draftsmen were usually a small minority of the drafting group, in one company the only draftsman employed was a woman who did all the drafting for the laboratory and was outstanding.

Early in 1947, the Federal Government employed at least 380 women draftsmen in 12 different agencies reporting statistics to the Women's Bureau. (For minimum requirements for beginning civil service position as engineering draftsman, see p. 5-77.) The largest numbers were in the United States Geological Survey, the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the United States Department of Agriculture. The Map Division of the State Department and the Bureau of Reclamation in the United States Department of Interior employed another 231 women who were draftsmen, engineering aids, or cartog raphers.

The full extent of the drop from the war peak of employment in this field cannot be measured because statistics are lacking. But an idea can be gained from the following facts:

The Army Air Forces, which employed 570 women draftsmen in October 1944, employed none in 1947.

The Tennessee Valley Authority reported 253 women engineering aids and draftsmen in 1943 as compared with 186 in 1947.

The Army Engineer Corps employed 444 women draftsmen in 1943 and a negligible number in 1947.

The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, which employed 158 women as engineering draftsmen during the war, had less than half that number in 1947.

Among the agencies which employed women draftsmen during the war but had none employed in 1947 are the Moffett Field Station of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and the United States Maritime Commission. The only report which indicated an increase rather than a decrease was that from the Quartermaster Corps, where 10 women draftsmen were employed in 1947 compared with 2 during the war peak.

In the future as in the past, there will be some women employed as draftsmen in industry and in Government, and a few more companies and a few more agencies than before the war are likely to employ them. In 1945-46, more than 330 women were enrolled in drafting courses in all-day trade courses in public vocational schools, where a demand for their services was still reported. However, competition for jobs is likely to become keen by 1950, perhaps a little less so in civil and architectural drafting where the demand is greatest and the warcreated supply less. In 1947, a public vocational-technical school in a large eastern city reported a good demand for young women who completed their 2-year post-high-school course in architectural drafting. Even so, it was reported that the young women had to be considerably better qualified than the young men graduates to be sure of placement. Women have a special contribution to make in home planning and design. City planning work, where mapping, charting, and freehand drawing are involved, has also been suggested as a suitable field for women, although this relatively new field is largely dominated by men (9). A few women who became cartographic draftsmen during the war have secured positions in private map publishing houses, which produce school maps, road maps, or commercial maps of various types. The interest of the lay public in globes, atlases, and maps has increased map production, providing more opportunities for women in drafting work. The possibility of transfer from one type of drafting to another, and even from applied art work to drafting, is relatively easy at the beginning levels, since a few months of specialized training or experience can supply the additional knowledge needed.

The extensive use of women artists as draftsmen during the war suggests that girls who major in art take drafting work too. The increasing use of diagrams and perspective illustrations to supplement engineering drawings makes this combination market