UNUTILISED POWERS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2777, 22 May 1916, Page 2

UNUTILISED POWERS

. . WOMEN AND WAR. ' The Melbourne "Age" speaks out regarding the reluqtanco of Commonwealth employers to avail themselves as fully as they might of tho services of' women to fill men's places:— . Thousands of women now realise what iutmbsra of able-bodied meii apparently do hot, that we must make far greater efforts before tho fortune of war will even begin to turn in our favour. They openly admit tho; fact, and- express their willingness to do their share by keeping 'tho. wheels of industry going. Yet so far there are only a few, a very few, cbms of women being allowed to rcplaco men. Instances were recently given in these columns of girls who tried to replace men in occupations for which they were eminently Suited, and failed to. secure employment. In a-letter published in the "Ago," on April 27, a lady writes that her experience has been precisely the same. Sho 'thought that she could enable Rome stalwart liftman to enlist by taking his place, and this sensible and practical idea mc-t with nothing but ridicule. Then sho thought that since, even in Australia, women are permitted by convention to drive motors, sho might replace one of tho many able-bodied chauffeurs who have not yet enlisted. Again, though sho was a skilled driver, her services were refused. Employers oomplain bitterly of tho unpatriotic conduct of workmen who help -' our fij'es by going on strike, yet, when'they? have, tho opportunity of employing in a novel capacity a member of that sex which has not yet a single war etriko to its discredit, they contemptuously reject her services. We read how the women of England and of Franca are sparing neither strength nor health in their country's service; if tho Allies prove victorious, history will record that it was the devoted industry of itliese women that made victory possible. Meanwhile, . women in Australia are thwartetl in every' effort they mako to imitate their' sisters in Europe. The man who ought to bo a soldier,_ and is perhaps an intending striker, is preferred by employers to the patriotic woman who would work unremittingly iu which she considers service to tne nation.

Yet ivould-bo liftwomen, chauffeurs, and other war workers need not bo discouraged. Their time will come, and perhaps very soon, when Australia will need and employ the arms and the brains of women as the Motherland does to-day. Prejudices, customs, and conventions, far stronger in England than in Australia, were overcome there not by reason and argument, but by tho stern logic of circumstances. In the early months of the war the unemployment of women, particularly of educated women, was a serious problem. Various organisations 6prang into being to cope with it, but it was only a few far-seeing bodies, such as the National Union of Woman Suffrage. Societies, that recognised from tho beginning the cure for this evil. Those who looked ahead insisted, even in tho first weeks of tho war, that women must make ready to step into the posts vacated liy tho men. Into each aud every ono of the new occupations which women are filling so successfully thoy only entered after much delay, and 'then in few numbers at first. As the manhood of Britain responded to tho call in, ever-grow-ing numbers, tho discussions as to what work \vas or was not fit for women gradually died down: For tho work had to Iks done, and the men were no longer tp be found; Women were sought after and welcomed where a few months before they had been smilingly rejected. And when the Commonwealth has anything like the same proportion of its population under arms as has Britain at present, women will perforce take men's places, for only thus will 'the life of the community go on. . ,