THE WOMAN WORKER.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1563, 5 October 1912, Page 11

THE WOMAN WORKER.

AMATEUR WAGE-EARNEK3. By many it is urged that women should find no place in the labour market, that their presence.there is an intrusion, and that they but serve to complicate matters for man—the legitimate worker—by increasing competition and "undercutting, • writes a contributor to the "Melbourne Nevertheless, women must live, and if their conditions are such that they are dependent on their own energies for food and clothing they must join the ranks of wage-earners whether they wish it or But it may be conceded that their doing so is a violation of the original intentions of nature, and that, except in cases of exceptional talent, woman s way should lie in tho direction of household and domestic duties; tho occasional necessity for their working is a matter of rcgrot, and it should be only that necessity which drives thorn from their homes to tho rush and tumble of business. For the bona-fide woman worker most people have sympathy and respect,. but there is a steadily-growing class of amateur feminine wage-earners who know nothing of the sour of necessity, who can claim a love of excitement as the sole excuse for their presence in tho labour market, and whose .work too often lacks sincerity and consistency. Coming from comfortable homes, where there is no lack of means, the actual wage they earn is to them a-'matter ol minor importance; whether their hobby be typing or art needlework, it is a moans to the same end—to earn a little extra 'Jpocket fhonoy," to gam a Mit, independence and to learn something of that gay Bohemia which they imagine is (ho inevitable setting of the womun vvorkef. As long as their interest lasts they keep their posts, then boredom comes, and they seek diversion elsewhere, _ flitting from post to post and experimenting with

one thing after another, bringing no real satisfaction'to their, employers, and learn ing only restlessness for themselves. Those, however,.are minor, evils—their real danger lies in the fact that the question of pounds, shillings, and pence is not for them an important one. Jeaunie is a clever milliner, so she makes dainty hats for her friends for a "mere song," and the legitimate milliner who has herself andher child to provide fori suffers in consequence. Mary is filled with a desire to be a typist, and as she isquito willing to work for a weekly wage of XI, while the usual rate is 255., sho easily gets employment, and a girl who is solely self-depen-dent and-who must help at home into the bargain, goes drearily in search of another billet. There aro amateur blouse, makers and dressmakers, and amateur knitters; there are girls who "iovo designing," and others with "a passion for wood carving," for* a shilling or two their services may be bought, and their friends, unthinking, buy. * Indeed, it is that lack of thought which is at the bottom of the trouble, for these amateur craftswomen are not deliberately selfish, and would possibly stand agape at the suggestion that they are depriving their fellow women of actual bread and butter. ' -, . ■

Knowing nothing of necessity themselves, they cannot grasp a state of existence in which pence rank almost as shillings, and in which the sourco of the next week's rent is a problem. Of course the "very poor" sometimes have no food, but they are visibly in need of help, and live in a region vaguely known as "slums," and often have no boots. That the neatly dressed girls who go backwards and forwards to the city each day may have financial problems almost' as acute seems absurd—unless one knows. As it is tlie field of the woman worker is sufficiently limited, and her way should not be made more difficult by the thoughtless selfishness of other women; competition should be limited to the necessitous, or should at least, be fair; no woman should get work by selling her services below tho standard rate.

Genuine workers cannot afford to "undercut," and for their own protection they should develop a spirit of loyalty and esprit de corps by which they work as women—not as individuals. Once the practice of underselling disappears tho genuine worker Will have little to fear from amateur competition—for the woman whose work is a mere hobby or fad of the moment must always be less efficient than ' sho who has made it a serious profession.