{"id":1364,"date":"2010-01-06T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2010-01-06T17:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carmenelectrode.com\/?p=1364"},"modified":"2010-01-04T09:37:41","modified_gmt":"2010-01-04T17:37:41","slug":"britains-pioneer-woman-welder-remembers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.arc-zone.com\/carmenelectrode\/2010\/01\/06\/britains-pioneer-woman-welder-remembers\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain’s Pioneer Woman Welder Remembers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edith Kent just turned 100 this past year. \u00a0Her fondest memories?
\nThose of being a woman welder in the Plymouth shipyards, where she was the first female to be paid a man’s wage.<\/p>\n

Edith Kent, wartime welder and the first woman to receive equal pay, turns 100<\/strong><\/p>\n

Being 4ft 11in paid off for Edith Kent.<\/p>\n

\"edith1\"Her diminutive stature meant that she could crawl inside torpedo tubes \u2014 and helped her to become the first woman in Britain to earn the same wage as her male colleagues while working as a\u00a0welder during the Second World War.<\/p>\n

This week Mrs Kent celebrated her 100th birthday with a tea dance at a hotel with 50 family and friends, including her sister Minna, 105.<\/p>\n

Mrs Kent began working at Devonport dockyard in Plymouth in 1941 but was so good that she received wage parity in 1943 \u2014 which was unheard of at the time.<\/p>\n

\"edith2\"Starting on five pounds and six shillings (\u00a35 6s) a week as a skilled female worker, she was soon given a rise to \u00a36 6s. A male manual worker in 1943 would have been on a weekly wage of only \u00a35 8s 6d.<\/p>\n

Mrs Kent, who still lives near the dockyard, said she was extremely proud of her signal achievement but she was embarrassed at the time.<\/div>\n
She said: \u201cI got the job because my brothers worked at the dockyard and they thought I would be good at it. I was the first woman to work as a welder there. It made me a bit uncomfortable that I was the first woman to earn the same as the men \u2014 and in some cases I was earning more than them. All the men I worked with were marvellous and they didn’t seem to mind me earning the same.<\/div>\n
\u201cNone of them ever dared say it, but I think they knew I was worth as much as them, if not more,\u201d she said. Mrs Kent took time off to have her only child, Jean, in 1942 and then went back to work \u2014 leaving the baby with one of her sisters. She worked at the dockyard until 1945 when the male workers returned from war and she left to work as a barmaid.<\/div>\n
Mrs Kent’s daughter, Jean, 66, said: \u201cMy mother has lived a remarkable life. After I was born she went straight back to work. She was a pioneer of girl power.\u201d<\/div>\n

Mrs Kent, who still lives near the dockyard, said she was extremely proud of her signal achievement but she was embarrassed at the time.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI got the job because my brothers worked at the dockyard and they thought I would be good at it. I was the first woman to work as a welder there.<\/p>\n

It made me a bit uncomfortable that I was the first woman to earn the same as the men \u2014 and in some cases I was earning more than them.\u00a0All the men I worked with were marvellous and they didn’t seem to mind me earning the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of them ever dared say it, but I think they knew I was worth as much as them, if not more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

CONTINUE READING ONLINE -><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edith Kent just turned 100 this past year. \u00a0Her fondest memories? Those of being a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-rosies","category-welding-history","entry","fw-tab-6 fw-tabr-4"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nBritain's Pioneer Woman Welder Remembers - Carmen Electrode\u2122 Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Britain's Pioneer Woman Welder Remembers - Carmen Electrode\u2122 Blog -\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.arc-zone.com\/carmenelectrode\/2010\/01\/06\/britains-pioneer-woman-welder-remembers\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carmen Electrode\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.arc-zone.com\\\/carmenelectrode\\\/2010\\\/01\\\/06\\\/britains-pioneer-woman-welder-remembers\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.arc-zone.com\\\/carmenelectrode\\\/2010\\\/01\\\/06\\\/britains-pioneer-woman-welder-remembers\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carmen Electrode\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.arc-zone.com\\\/carmenelectrode\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e46282544508b6da8e7a7947fcbb3dc3\"},\"headline\":\"Britain’s Pioneer Woman Welder Remembers\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-01-06T17:00:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.arc-zone.com\\\/carmenelectrode\\\/2010\\\/01\\\/06\\\/britains-pioneer-woman-welder-remembers\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":529,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Original Rosies\",\"Welding History\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.arc-zone.com\\\/carmenelectrode\\\/2010\\\/01\\\/06\\\/britains-pioneer-woman-welder-remembers\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.arc-zone.com\\\/carmenelectrode\\\/2010\\\/01\\\/06\\\/britains-pioneer-woman-welder-remembers\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.arc-zone.com\\\/carmenelectrode\\\/2010\\\/01\\\/06\\\/britains-pioneer-woman-welder-remembers\\\/\",\"name\":\"Britain's Pioneer Woman Welder Remembers - 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