WOMEN BANKERS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2786, 2 June 1916, Page 3

WOMEN BANKERS

When, late last summer, Manchester bankers were sounded on the result of employming women as bank clorks, Ihe general opinion was that they did the routine work well enough, but that the prospect of' their ever mastering the science of banking was small, states an editorial in the "Manchester Guardian." We ventured the view that this judgment, based, as it apeared to be, more on postulated limitations of mind and physique than on the possible fruits of study and training, which the women had not then had, would have to bo revised, and might have to be reversed. Com--1 parison of the capacities of the sexes for intellectual work of any kind is generally theoreticall. and as unsafo as it ■is unsound. And even when it is drawn from a practical test it ia- always liable to be upset by new conditions. Some twelve years a»o a special sub-committeo on technical instruction for women, appointed by the London Technical Education Board, reported that women were loth to undergo the discipline and fatigue of a thorough technical training, because, unlike men, they had not considered breadwinning to bo their settled work in life, and they approached industrial matters on the Msumption .that their wage-earn-ing was to be casual or only for a time. But the 3'ears and the war has changed all that, and the theory that women's genius, intuitive and temperamental, is not designed for (studies and pursuita that are founded on logical and practical necessity has gone by the board. So, too, the fairness of holding out to women no hope of admission to the penetralia of banking lias pust been openly'challenged by tho results of this year's examinations on the Gilbart Lectures at King's College. Not only was the first prize won by a woman, but three other women— altogether there were 22 candidates—obtained not less than 80 per cent, of marks. Tho achievement is the more remarkable since this is the first year that.either the lectures or the examinations have been open to women at all; and though it does not prove women to be potential bank managers, it at least argues their ability to master the principles of banking, and points at the very lowest to their delivery from the ruts aroutine. HOCKEY ■ LADIES' ASSOCIATION. The following are tho fixtures, grounds, .aDd referees, for., to-morrow: — Seniors.—Public.'Trust v.: Ramblers, No. 1, Karorr; referee, Mr. ' Sherwood. Huatahi y./-'University, No. 2, Karori; referee, Mr. Lloyd'. Juniors.—Technical College v.- Wellington Girls' College, No". B,'Karori. Te Aro School v. St. .Augustine's, Petone; Mr. Perrin. .;'