Wartime labor dilution broke skilled jobs into stages unskilled workers could handle

Evidence

Wartime states seized control of the supply of labor to tackle the problem of manpower shortages. A basic step in this direction was to expand the pool of available workers through the process of dilution: i.e., the introduction of unskilled labor, including women, in jobs formerly reserved for skilled men. As mentioned, dilution is integral to capitalist production where the competition among capitalists and the pressure from workers induces the capitalist constantly to cut costs by technological innovation and more effi cient reorganization of the labor process. During the war, countries greatly boosted this tendency through increased mechanization of production, which broke the work process into simple stages that less skilled workers could manage. As the British Women’s Employment Committee confi rmed, women “have replaced men in iron and steel works, in chemical works, in brickyards and in gasworks … subdivision, sectionalisation, and above all, the introduc- tion of mechanical assistance has enabled their employment on work previously regarded as beyond their strength” (Ministry of Reconstruction 1919, Cd. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 168

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘dilution’ — introduction of unskilled labor, including women, into jobs formerly reserved for skilled men.
• XREF: connects to: Wartime expansion created an unskilled workforce ripe for radicalization — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 171; War mechanization broke skilled work into stages manageable by unskilled labor — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 168

Broader Connections

• War mechanization broke skilled work into stages manageable by unskilled labor #corroborates (1.00) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 168