CANADIAN OPENINGS FOR WOMEN

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 76, 23 December 1919, Page 5

CANADIAN OPENINGS FOR WOMEN

REPORT ON INDUSTRIAL OPPORTUNITIES. , A report on openings in Canada, for women from, the United Kingdom was laid before the Imperial Parliament last month. It gives an exhaustive survey of industrial and commercial occupations »nd the openings for the e.mnloyment and settlement of .women upon the land. 1 The Commissioners, Miss Gladys' S. Poll, and P. M. Girdler, who represented the Overseas Settlement Committee, of which Lord- Milner •'" president, went to Ottawa in April. There fliey interviewed the Ministers and Deputy-Ministers of Immigration. Agriculture and Labour. They then visited the various provinces, where they called on the provincial authorities, and inspected, the work done at the agricultural colleges, experimental farms, and oilier associations interested in the work of women. They found an urgent demand for women in various occupations in Canada, particularly for cooks and domestic ser-. vants, nurses, dressmakers, and school teachws. In other occupations they found a scarcity of women, but those mostly required were women skilled in their particular lino of work. In many eases, too, as, for instance, that of teachers, those who go nut from England will he obliged to undergo a period of tra/siing in Canada. ■ No undertaking was given by the Dominion Government that women of the War Services would he able to avail themselves of the special facilities for land settlement allowed to demobilised soldiers. The report al?o points out the hardships of farming in Canada 'for women settlers, and the isolation,, which would not make such a, life a pleasant one for women. The 'recommendations of the Commissioners are as follow:— \ (1) That all women makinr; application to be sent to Canada in order to take up domestic work should be required to state in writing whether they wish to live in a town or in a rural district. Considerable dissatisfaction and misunderstanding would thus 1m avoided. /

(2) That every woman making request for assistance towards entry into Canada be interviewcd_by a selection committee, of women authorised to net on behalf of tho Oversea Settlement Committee and the Commissioner of Emigration for Canada. - y (3) That educated women desiring to take up' professional employment, in Canada be advised that sonic course of (mining in tli'j .Doirrnion ii a necessary preliminary, to almost every form of such work. ' (4) That the number of women travelling to Canada for the purpose'of taking up employment bo regulated according to information obtained periodically fpmi the Employment Bureau.- officials in Canada, arid that all niacins of women bo arranged through or in close co-opera-tion With those officials, to whom tire Brit'fih authorities should look for rocomrmemlat'on of fitness of employers engaging British women. , (.5) That, in order to ensure satisfactory plawna, papers descri|)tlve, of well prospective wage-earning settler be sent; j forward 'before tier arrival to the Employment Bureaux 1 authorities of the Province to which she proposes to travel. ((!) That close communication be cslablish/d between the Oversea Settlement Committee and the Canadian GV.uno 1 of Immigration of Women for Household Sorviw. , « ! (7) That with tho approval of the ])(\s>\ minion authorities tho Overseas Settle: meat Committee appoint a woman renre- ] sentativo to Canada during the period while free parages are granted to women of the War Services, in order to form a connecting link between the Oversea Settlement Committee and the. Departmental officials of Imm'gration and Trades and Labour in the various Dominion Provinces concerned. The latter officials "hould bs at liberty to consult with such representatives as to ddlicult'es of placing settlers, and her further duty would be to keep in touch with tho'Canadian Council of Women .eferred to in paragranh <1R and tho various women's associations in the Dominion who .arc prepared to ass'st in the matter of welfare with regard to women from the United Kingdom. (8) That the bonus system be abolished in the United Kingdom, and also, we hone, in Canada. (The bonus is paid by Provincial Governments, shipping lines, and employers to agents in this country who secure women to go to Canada.'