WOMEN ON JOB

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 119, 22 May 1942, Page 3

WOMEN ON JOB

WORKADAY FRONT

"IT WASN'T DONE BEFORE"

Before the war women didn't drive trucks and vans, they didn't deliver bread or meat or milk. No one ever considered the idea of postwomen, or women tram conductors, porters or service station attendants. There wasn't any need. .

To-day women pre doing all these things, and a ho.~>t more besides. They have taken over industry quietly, without any fuss, replacing the men who have been called up. A family who owns a butcher's business loses its menfolk, and one of the women automatically steps into the breach. The only people who are surprised are the householders, who suddenly become aware that a woman is "delivering the goods."

And "delivering the goods" with a will they are. On all sides you hear the enthusiastic comments: "The women are marvellous. Their output is excellent. They leave the men standing."

One spokesman said this morning, "There's no knowing what capabilities some of these girls have. I believe they could do a whole lot more if they were given the chance."

No net, however widespread, could embrace all the jobs that women are doing now, yet never dreamed of doing before the war. Some efforts must inevitably go unrecorded, for women have answered the call so quietly, so unspectacularly. But every woman who is doing a mansized job has her own satisfaction, whether the world hears about it or not.

Many of them don't wear uniform. Slacks or riding breeches, with perhaps a bright turban on their heads, more often than not constitute their badge of service.

"On the Job Now"

There's a satisfying story about a girl who is driving a truck on the Albert Park tunnel job. She applied for a job at the Placement Office and was given a trial by her.prospective employer, not without some dubiousness on his part. She showed what she could do in the way of backing a truck down side streets and so on, and then he asked her when she could start. . Her reply was, "I'm on the job now." A week later he reported to the Placement Office that his truck had never been better handled. Householders are now quite accustomed to hearing the whistle of postwomen in the streets, and some people have their bread and their milk delivered by women. There is at least one woman in one of the eastern suburbs who is delivering meat, though this is not a job which has been generally taken over by women. . Women on motor cycles .are another novelty. Some of them whizz in and out of the city delivering and collecting films for chemists. Women are doing process work m engineering shops; they are handling machines of all kinds in factories. There are liftwomen now, too, in some buildings. In the country women herd testers and land girls have replaced men, and in some cases women are running farms themselves. One authority said this morning that it was probable that an opportunity would soon be opened to mechanically-minded women to. take on assembly jobs. Those with a knowledge of how to repair their own motor cars would be excellent for this work.

In Post Office aiul Banks

The extensive service being performed by women in every department of the Post Office needs no further commendation. In addition to going the rounds with mail bags they are driving delivery vans, sorting in the mail room, delivering messages, and working under very difficult conditions in the operating room.

Banks have been invaded by more women and girls than their sacred precincts have ever seen before. In some of the smaller branches there is even .the strange sight of a girl acting as part-time teller occasionally. And the women are giving no cause for regret that the barriers had to come down.

The women who were working in the gardens of the railway station are ho longer there, though they are both doing war jobs. One is gardening elsewhere, and another is driving a truck. Women have in fact been engaged as gardeners for a number of private homes. As yet, no women taxi-drivers have appeared in Auckland though there are some in other centres. Nor are there any women cinema operators; but as far as these and other jobs are concerned, women can say with some confidence, "We're still hoping!"