Fine motor skills and all-female workforces

[snurtifier]

Recently I've visited a couple of European factories where precision instruments are made. A lot of this work is done by hand, and in both cases, all of the people on the factory floor are women. In the larger of the two factories, there are over two hundred people on the production lines, and not a single man among them.

As far as I can tell, this was also quite common in electronics back in the 70s and 80s, before automation took over. There would be hundreds of people in a big room populating circuit boards and soldering, and very often they would all be women.

When I've asked about this, I've repeatedly been told that it's because women have better fine motor skills than men. Sometimes also that women have more patience with this sort of highly skilled but repetitive work.

This may be true up to a point, but it surely isn't the full story, and of course the managers who tell me this have been male.

I suspect it's largely a post hoc justification for perpetuating a historical situation. Isn't the main reason these workforces are all-female really just that they always have been? Maybe it's even a legacy of wartime, when men went to the front and women worked in the factories?

Not really sure what point I'm trying to make here, I just found it interesting. Has anyone done research into this?

Well women would historically have been paid less than men so that's a factor.

I once asked the OT at work (send school) if it was my imagination or were more boys in need of help with fine motor skills and she said that she predominantly sees with boys on both fine and gross motor issues. Obviously some boys are brilliant at fine motor skills too.

However I do think girls are encouraged to do these things more than boys from an early age so there's sex stereotyping too.

And cultural

Men are generally physically stronger as adults so more likely to do more heavy lifting physical jobs, leaving these sort of jobs for women too

However I do think girls are encouraged to do these things more than boys from an early age so there's sex stereotyping too.

The difference in fine motor is much larger at an early age, so it's a bit chicken and egg.

By adulthood there isn't much difference, I'm sure the vast majority of men and women could do the job. I think all of the explanations suggested above are factors- in the same way that the lack of female executives isn't really about skills, it's about sexism.

Smaller fingers will make a bit of difference to assembling small things, but probably not enough to justify 100% female. If it were natural disturbed, I'd expect something like a 30:70 split. It could be quite fun working in an all female factory though

The difference in fine motor is much larger at an early age, so it's a bit chicken and egg.

True but of course many Buck the tend.

Youngest boy had really good fine motor skills early on and the concentration to match (which is another factor, as well as motivation.) so he spent more time getting better at that.

There's no coincidence that MLD educational settings have more boys than girls.

When I did my work experience (in 1990) I visited the typing pool in the company. I was quite amazed to see a room full of 100% women all typing away (and all smoking seemingly, the room was thick with smoke).
I hadn't seen amything like that again until I visited a factory in Germany a couple of years ago and all of the quality control inspectors were female, all sitting in a large room at microscopes inspecting products.
I suspect gender splits like this were much more common in the past and is more to do with "that's just the way things are" and being lower paid probably, so men did the higher paid, more physical and more dirty jobs in factories.

Teaching - primary is mostly female.

In fact I hadn't realised how unusual it was to work in a uniquely female environment till recently and how that changes things

It's funny how men tend to be dominant in jobs like surgery where fine motor skills are required, or all those horny handed sailors who used to do the most amazing embroidery, and carving on whalebones, and ships in bottles. And lets not forget tattooists, jewellery makers, watch makers, men who build intricate scale model railways, pastry chefs etc etc.

Conclusion: some men have good fine motor skills and some women have good fine motor skills, but if you want to pay a minimum wage then say women are better at it.

Well exactly. Now to be fair I have no idea what the pay scales are in these factories, but the high-status jobs in management and R&D are mostly or entirely taken by men. If there's a career path from the factory floor into management it's not one many people seem to take.

Either way I was surprised to find such a degree of segregation by sex in this day and age, and that everyone seemed to accept the 'fine motor skills' explanation without question.

Definitely also this magpie.

My Mum used to work in one of those factories; the women did assembly and the men did manufacturing and management. Gibson (guitar manufacturers) kept quiet about the Kalamazoo Gals, who kept the guitar factory open during WW2 as they thought men wouldn't buy guitars made by women. But the guitars from that era are actually made to a higher standard and still sought after.https://www.voanews.com/a/gibson-guitar-women-kalamazoo-girls/1622199.html

Do see if you can get hold of a copy of a book called: Of Marriage and the Market. It explores the economics of women in the workplace, and one of the things it investigates is the ‘myth of nimble fingers’ in females, and the fact that this is often actually down to early training (such as sewing) that girls tend to receive and boys tend not to. It also looks at the fact that when such learned skills are dismissed as inherent and gendered, they are no longer viewed as trained skills that need to be suitable remunerated…
It also looks at the way that when more women enter a traditionally ‘male’ field, status and pay fall, and visa versa. It’s something I’ve actually witnessed first hand in my field. It was female led and badly paid, low status. For various reasons the status and pay increased (due to a very specific external factor, a change in the law that had a massive impact), and over the last 5 years it has noticeably shifted to become male centric, with a core of very experienced, senior women going ‘wtf?!’.

I believe the book I mentioned was last published and revised in the 1990s, but it’s still relevant, and I wish an updated version would be produced!

@AllTheChaos
That makes so much sense about skills being downgraded if they are seen as gendered.

Employers will pay the lowest wages they can to get the job done, light, clean indoor work wether skilled or not will always be preferred by women. Heavy dirty outdoor work is done mainly by men, if women want to join them they can and earn equal pay. It’s tough especially if you have a family working the hours men do.

Thank you for mentioning my little book, "Kalamazoo Gals," which changed my life.

yes, I don't see women campaigning to be bin collectors, sewerage workers, grease trap cleaners etc.

I'm really intrigued as to what industry you are in AllTheChaos i can well believe it though. Teaching is a good example of the phenomenon, as is computer programming which was a mostly female job until the 80s I think.

@JTGuitar I was really interested to read the article about your research and it's lovely that you've popped into the thread. I've added your book to my reading list!

@OneHundredOtters Thank you!

I agree with this.

In terms of salary, skills-wise, men can do both heavy and fine work. But women can generally only do fine work. So there is a more limited pool of workers for heavy work, so the pay goes up. Not saying that is fair but it is demand and supply at play, in addition to structural discrimination.

I'm R&D, but I when I first went on plant I was very surprised how much of the pharmaceutical and speciality chemical industries is reliant on men being able to lift 25 kg sacks!