Page:Women Wanted.djvu/195

 ON THE WAY TO THE TOP

To-day at every convention or little district meeting of any skilled trade, there is one question for heated discussion, "How far are the women going?" The only answer is the woman movement that keeps on steadily moving. And it's moving up. With every year of the war there are more and more vacant places. More and more of these are places high up and higher up. And the women who are called, are coming! There is Henrietta Boardman.

Henrietta Boardman, "somewhere in England" has arrived at one of the highest skilled operations in munitions, tool-tempering. She sits before a Bunsen burner and holds the tool in the flame while it turns all beautiful tints, straw colour, purple, blue or red. She must be able to distinguish just the right shade for its perfection. She does it so well that all the tool-fitters in the shop now have the habit of bringing to her, in preference to any other workman, the tools they want tempered. Because hers last longer! There sits next to her a skilled tool-temperer who is a member of the Engineers' Trade Union and the tools that he tempers will last for three-quarters of an hour: they are considered good by the trade if they last three-quarters of an hour. But the tools that Henrietta Boardman tempers are lasting sometimes all night!

"It's curious," the foreman directing my attention to Henrietta Boardman's work commented. "Great