WORK OF WOMEN.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17127, 23 April 1921, Page 8

WORK OF WOMEN.

AN ADVOCATE OF EDUCATIONFILMS. A GREAT MEDICAL TRIUMPH. (FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON", .March 11. Tlie first woman in any profession to hold a position with a salary of £2OOO attached is Dr. Louise Mcllroy, who j lias been appointed the first Professor j of Obstetrics ahd Gynecology under the j University of and Director of the Obstetric and Gyna?cological Unit to the Royal. Free Hospital, London School of Medicine, Gray's Inn road. Dr. Mcllroy obtained this appointment in open competition with men, some of whom are widely known. It is recognised that no subject is more important in older to have a healthy, highlyefficient nation. rrofessor Mcllroy is at present in Glasgow, where she has been assistant to and. Professor oi GviiEeeologv in the University. During tlie war she was chief surgeon to the Girton and Xewnhnm Unit of the Scottish Women's Hospitals with the Fiench Aimv in France and Salonika. \fter the Armistice she did notable work in Belgrade and Constantinople, and has three Serbian decorations. Her first and second assistants »* "je Roval Free will receive £7OO and_£oCk\ per annum respectively; her staff will also include a registrar and three house physicians. „ A medical officer who knows Dr 'Mcllroy writing of "another triumph tor woman," soys: "In Salonika, towards the end of the war, I met Dr. Louise Mcllroy... I see in the 'Medical Directory' that her degrees, University honour's and publications fill about halt a column of type. Her sister (also a Glasgow University graduate, with almost" as many degrees), Miss J Hamilton Mcllroy. M.A M.B D.Sc is Assistant Medical Officer to the Glasgow School Board. Professor Mcllrcy s appointment is a triumph for l'einunsm. The post was open to men; it is a. very important job, and the useful salary ot £2OOO is attached to it." 0.8. E. in the Kitchen. ' Miss Jennie Jones, 0.8. E., formerly of the Q.M.A.A.C, who set a spicndid example to her fellow-workers by returning to dofnestic work after demobilisation, declares that she is one of the happiest cook-generals, in England. The wonder-servant, whose good temper and cheerful disposition have won for her the golden opinion of her emplover, is engaged at.Shifnal Vicarage by "the Rev. T. Swinburne, a member oi the poet Swinburne's family. "I am sure that they only gave- mo the 0.8. E. because I stuck to my job," she said. "I was so surprised when one day I received a letter saying I was to receive the honour 'for valuable war-time services.' I was glad, to come back to domestic -work wihen I . was demobilised. I cannot think why so many girls object to it. Life in a home seems to me to be the happiest of all, and I mean to stick to it." Taxes and. Taxis. Educational films have found an able champion in Miss Helena Normanton —the brilliant woman law student, who made a witty and pointed'speech at a cinema trade gathering at the-Troea-dero. Some of her anecdotes were highly amusing. An angry parent, she said, once accused her of giving his child a wrong view of history, as the boy, on Miss Normanton's authority, had told his fattier that there were taxis in the days of Edward 111., and the father appeared.in an angry mood before her the next day. On the boy being called to explain what had put tfee foolish notion into his head, he turned to Miss Normanton and exclaimed, "Well, you said Edward 111. crushed people'beneath heavy taxes." Films, she added, would prevent" such errors. Chiefly About a Gusset.

■Miss Normanton gave a very clever I definition of education, It meant bringing out the best that'was in -the mind within the age limits of birth and deaths Referring to the value of educational films in schools, she said theife was a lack of responsiveness on the part of education' authorities in this-country. The authorities had a passion for spending money on bricks and mortar, but they hated having to pay .teachers properly and having to spend money on apparatus. She . urged the producers of such films to-persevere. The film could.be made to be of enormous value in the education of the world. She nv stanced the teaching of many subjects by , the use of the film, particularly needlework, a' subject, she said, which was more responsible than any other subject for wearing out the nerves of the teachers. A film much needed was one which would teach, girls how to sew a gusset into a man's shirt. She paused to explain, amid laughter", that a gusset gave strength to a shirt where it was most essential, and said that the difficulty of explaining, lessons of this kind, on which the happiness of so many homes depended, had broken the hearts of many teachers. The first; firm that developed the film for educational purposes would strike a gold-mine. The apathy of the Board of Education should and must be overcome. Miss Normanton said that every American school of importance possessed a framed copy of Magna Carta, but it was rare to find it in British fochools, although the cost was only about five shillings. Scottish education committess, in particular, were loth to supply copies of Magna Carta.

Women Auctioneers. The number of professions for which women are not eligible becomes less and less. Auctioneering and estate agency is how aspired to by the fair sex, and this week four girls sat with nearly 600 men for the examination of the Auctioneers' and Estate Agents'Institute. Three of them are taking the intermediate and one the preliminary examination. "Miss Dean and I worked all through the war in an auctioneer's office," said 'Miss Graham, "and we do not see whj we should not go on with it. We want to take the final next year and become associates of the Auctioneers'' Institute, so that we can command a professional salary." The third. Miss ,M. Hayward, has studied in her spare time. They do not aspire actually tb "wielding the hammer," which the average, person immediately conjures up as being the principal part of an auctioneer's business, though possibly this may come later. . • The secretary of the Auctioneers and Estate Agents' Institute raised the question: - In what direction will a woman auctioner specialise? "I believe, personally," he said,, "that they will be more. likely to become valuers of old china or old hooks than aspirants to rostrums at, for example, cattle markets." Training as Designers of Houses. Lady Banister Fletcher, wife of Sir Banister Fletcher, the architect, the first woman to participate in the proceedings of the annual assembly of the Royal Institute of British Architects, has decided views on the future of women architects.. In her opinion, the old saying that women could never be architects because .they. could never run up ladders iB utterly exploded. "Modem clothes are sufficiently adaptable for Jhat. Women, by their inherent domestic instincts, should make excellent architects, for they should naturally know how to plan the interior of a house to facilitate its easy running, and now that they have the full power to work at architecture they should achieve real success." Women in Trade Union Amalgamation. The National Federation of Women Workers, which was founded by the late i Miss Mary Macarthur, has completed

its amalgamation with .the National Union of General Workers, of which Mr J. R. dynes, M.P., is president: •I he General Workers have a fellowship of well over half a million, and the women, workers between 40,000 and 50,000. Miss' M. Bondfield becomes the chief secretary of the women' 9 section of the amalgamation, and Miss M. Symons "will be assistant secretary and head of the negotiations department. The section will be administered,by an executive elected by women. Miss Bondfield is confident that the amalgamation will be of endrmous assistance in the'organisation of women, while retaining all the features for which the National Federation of Women Workers has won its big reputation. ',' Unless the Government takes prompt and special measures for the immediate extension of the period of the unemployment benefit," she remarked, "many women wiM starve. A large number are now drawing their last benefit under the 1920 Act. It is useless to talk of finding work for them if meanwhile they die of starvation. At the same time the whole trade union movement is demanding that the extension of manufacturing must be supported by energetic efforts to place as many Government contracts as possible and to' establish such foreign relationships as will restart the export trade." Drill for Workgirls. "That's the most sensible thing I've heard of," said Miss Lilian Barker, when discussing the physical drill classes provided by a suburban firm for their 400 employees before the work of the day begins. During the war t Miss Barker had under her care' thousands of women workers at Woolwich Arsenal, and their physical well-being was her concern. "We had voluntary drill classes for the girls every evening, and I found'that it not only improved them physically, but that ■ the effects were also observable in their work, because the drill fostered esprit 3e corps. I shpuld like to see the public parks used for organised games. It ought to be possible, for employers of large numbers of girls to have facilities for drilling them in the parks where no other open-air space is avauabie." \ Golf for Women over Fifty.

.Js a woman ever too old to play games ? Apparently not, for last year Mrs F. W. Haigh played nine holes of the Barnehurst Golf Club at Crayford, Kent, in her 92nd year. This lady is the president of the Veteran Ladies Golf Association, which has just been formed. The secretary., 'Mrs Latimer le Marchant, says that only women over 50. will be admitted. "I should say that the number of women golfers over 50 is as great as those under 50, she said. "In every club some of the keenest members are women between 50 and 70, and as our new association gets known we hope to have at least 200 members. , • ■ Mrs Eustace Miles was asked her opinion of the scheme from the health point of view. "For women who have always played golf it is excellent," she said. "But it would be rather* dangerous for a woman of 50 to take up golf for the first time, unless she had. prepared herself by a long course of physical exercises. I see one objection, and one serious objection, to the new club. What woman over 50 would care to admit her age?" The Conference Typists. A word of praise is certainly due to the women typists whose arduous work' "behind the scenes" at last week's Peace Conference largely helped the public to hear at the earliest. possible moment of the more momentous happenings on the stage. These women worked devotedly and at high pressure. Their transcript of Dr. Simomrs speech was being read to the journalists in the porch of Lancaster House while the German Foreign' Minister was still speaking, and at the later session the first four folios of Mr Lloyd George's speech were in Lord Riddell's hands within thirty minutes of the last delegate's arrival, at St. James's Palace.