The article “Boys and Their Toys: The Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild, 1930-1968, and the Making of a Male” by Ruth Oldenziel discusses various topics such as men’s interest in technology, General Motors and The Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild’s policy regarding young men, their recruitment processes, and advertisements. At the beginning of the 20th century, those companies were mostly men-oriented, claiming that men’s predisposition to technology comes from childhood as boys are used to playing with toy cars, planes, and trains. Therefore, the ad and the recruitment processes are based on the understanding of men as future specialists and consumers of GM’s goods. The guild presented various competitions, events, and tasks in order to teach the future generation of corporate workers and expand the consumer markets of those companies. However, women were never an option for GM and The Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild, and they were never considered appropriate customers or specialists, even such possibility was excluded.
GM’s intention of future specialist creation paid off handsomely and led to the recruitment of many winners in the leading positions, such as chief designers or managers at General Motors and other companies. The companies provided the winners of their competitions in automobile design with scholarships that could cover all college expenses. Therefore, many American families actively participated in their children’s technical development and provided an environment to concentrate on the competition. Many teenage boys tried to get a membership card from the guild, and several organizations such as YMCA, the Boy Scouts, and high school could help with it.
Along with all modifications in the recruitment process, GM introduced a judging system that brought together engineering educators, high school teachers, and General Motor’s corporate management. Social and economic networks such as newspapers and media supported the organization in questions of sponsorships or event announcements. Therefore, all the contests were about building models and male characters along with improving the correlation with social media. However, females still did not have access to any kind of events announced by the corporations and the guild.