Augusta Holmes Clawson (June 23, 1903 – May 13, 1997) was an American civil servant, and writer of ''Shipyard Diary of a Woman Welder'', a diary about welding in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Clawson was a graduate of Vassar. In 1943, she was assigned by the

United States Office of Education The Office of Education, at times known as the Department of Education and the Bureau of Education, was a small unit in the Federal Government of the United States within the U.S. Department of the Interior from 1867 to 1972. It is now separated i ...

to work undercover as a

welder In a broad sense, a welder is anyone, amateur or professional, who uses welding equipment, perhaps especially one who uses such equipment fairly often. In a narrower sense, a welder is a tradesperson who specializes in fusing materials together ...

at the

Swan Island Shipyard The Swan Island Shipyard was a shipyard on Swan Island (Oregon), Swan Island in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was constructed by the industrialist Henry J. Kaiser in 1942 as part of the U.S. Maritime Commission's Emergency Shipbuilding Progr ...

in order to discover the difficulties faced by women workers and the reasons many women welders were leaving the job shortly after completing training. Her book based on her experiences there, ''Shipyard Diary of a Woman Welder'', was published in 1944 by

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

References

1903 births 1997 deaths 20th-century American women writers Vassar College alumni Welders American women civilians in World War II 20th-century United States government officials {{US-writer-stub