CAREERS FOR GIRLS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 103, 24 January 1908, Page 3

CAREERS FOR GIRLS.

.SHORTHAND WRITERS • AND. TYPISTS.' • Perhaps there is; no other' career open to girls in New Zealand upon which' they.enter, so "blindly - and with so little knowledge' of tho requirements of the position as;. they do when. they decide to become shorthand Writers and typists.' An offico is an excellent place for a *"girl who'' is .qualified t'o v/ork therein, and speaking generally sbo should liko her work. Thero is a it, that becomes drudgery," but so there, is. in. washing dishes, or in selling ribboiV. and lace; thero is an'..occasional iusli of business and demand for more hours of overtime work 'than, tho shop assistant knows; the pay is not so'good as that of. the"competent.''shop assistant; and there is' no " opportunity 'for intellectual .development;. The girl clerk must find: her mciital-food'somewhere outsidetlio.oUiav During offico hours generally speaking'she is earning the wherewithal for living, her life out. ofjt. Sbo has work,' a great deal of routino work,, arid generally this lies along the same narrow lines. But all this may be' said of' many other • waysin .which girls have, to earn their living; It is only a"-small'proportion, of tho world's workers /Who spend their 1 lives doing the things they want to do, and earning l their living by their favourite occupations. Thero aro various reasons why a girl should want to go in for ofneo work ratner than-for so mo other more lucrative employment open to, her. For ono thing it is nice .clean .'work, and so long as tho nien with .whom she lias to deal are civil, thero is no.tliing about it that need give annoyance to tho _niost carefully brought up girl. ' It is more secludod '.-than' lifo in-a'''shop, .and she has to deal wiih a few associates instead of with the general public. .Also, ;sho. can in a comparatively short time become' fitted for dlico work provided sbo'has had a gopd general .education. Probably it is to this .fact, that girls of good education and training have.,'gone in. for typewriting' work. There is no doijbt that in tlio minds of riiany people-office work is a very "genteel,"'using the word in its pretentious soriso, and for tl\is reason tho schools of shorthand and typewriting are flooded with half-educated pupils who would do'much; better if they'j turned their' attention to domestic work., .

.. Tho fact that in a .few months time! one can learn enough shorthand .and'typewriting for the ordinary office' leads. tho average aspirant to. think, that in thoso few mbntlis she can qualify herself for office work which is a very different , thing. To bo'- a goodshorthand clerk a great deal more is.needed that a'mere knowledge of shorthand and, a' lair speed, ..but flirls .will not' understand this. I lie first' requisito is a fair knowledge of the English language, and it is surprising how rare such knowledge is. , A large proportion ot tho girls are particularly weak in this respect,. and the result is that '■'•'he'ii they go into an oflico tliov irritato their employers by reading their shorthand notes into all sorts, of ridiculous words, and making the veriest' nonsense out of what was given down as a plain straightforward business jotter. They are not able to distinguish between words of similar appearance and they aro completely l beaten by an unfamiliar word or expression. Theso aro tho girls who put a full stop in tho middle of a sentence and commas always where there should be full stops. These also aro the girls who make business men declare that girls in offices aro a mistake, and who 'by their ineificiency keep tho standard of wages paid to typewriter girls at a low figure. . 1' or competent business girls there is a good opening in Wellington, and the more efficient they are, the more of an opening will there be for others. The other day I heard thrco women discussing a. fourth, a youngish woman who wanted to earn money but who did not need to consider tho question of nays and means. One woman wanted her to go m for physical culture, a second urged an art course, and tho third wlio knew all about it put.in a big plea that she should enter commercial life. "We bavo so few educated or competent girls in our offices," S when a giW with brains is willing to como in wo want her badly." A typewriter girl will .start with ten, fifteen shillings, or a pound a ifeek, and she will work up to thirty shillings or perhaps two pounds, if sho is. capable. In some of tho Government offices girls are earning as much as £125 or £150 a ,1-car, but theso higher salaries aro only for tho most compotent. In the smaller pffices n. knowledge of bookkeeping is useful, sometimes indeed essential, but'in tho larger ones shorthand and typewriting alono aro required. The hours aro generally'from nine in the morning till five o'clock; in tho. evening, or in tho officcs belonging to shops''till six in the evening, and it may be said that there are few offices jiow that close their doors against women. It is not usiial yet for women to bo employed ill bank offices, btft it is not unknown. Some employers speak very highly of the girls in their employ.' One mail recently said that ho foutid the girls in tho office mere conscientious and industrious than men, and' irioro -to be relied oil. But hero as in other'branches of work the complaint is th'ab the average girl does not givo her mind to it, that sho regards her wages as so much pocket-money, and her engagement as a'cash transaction; that she is without ambition, or interest in her work. It would bo interesting to know whether these remarks do not apply almost as much to men. Tho only thing [ heard tJiat threw any light upon that question .was tho remark of one experienced woman that "office work seeins to como as second nature to a man, but a girl has yet to learn to adapt herself to it." l'robably it is a matter that will within the next fow years settle itself satisfactorily, as girls como to understand that they must take their work seriously, and throw their energies into it. Until that time it is to be feared that I,be competent office girls—who are many—will be more or less, handicapped by the larce rronortion of uietficionts.