Articulating a common fear of replacement by less expensive women workers, one labor journalist labeled Detroit the new “she-town”:īecause women can do the semi-skilled work of running punch presses and drills in the auto factories, men are being laid off to join the mob of unemployed workers. Men are being replaced by women on drill presses, lathes, and even internal grinders.” The social and cultural conventions of male workers defined work with metals and machines as male work. One Studebaker worker complained about the appearance of more and more women in the light machine operations: “One is immediately struck by the sight of so many women at work. In the 1920s and early 1930s, male auto workers consistently decried the increasing numbers of women in American automobile plants. The reason was simple-female workers cost much less than men, and young workers labored more vigorously at the new production lines. In addition, the new methods permitted more and more young workers to replace older veterans in the auto shops. Just as the Ford production techniques allowed more and more unskilled immigrant workers to enter American auto plants in the 1910s, the diffusion of these methods after the curtailment of immigration encouraged automobile manufacturers to hire more and more women into light machine work and assembly jobs. In the 1920s, the new production technologies and work simplification undermined the traditional auto worker notions of manhood. Men at Work? Masculinity and Mass Production in the 1920s and 1930s The Degradation of Work Revisited: Workers and Technology in the American Auto Industry, 1900-2000 The Degradation of Work Revisited: More of the Same: Men at Work? Masculinity and Mass Production in the 1920s and 1930s
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