WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 90, 10 January 1920, Page 4

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

'wiiat the future holds,

There are two main facts thnMinvo emerged from much discussion and investigation on tho question of women in industry. Firstly, tlwt thero are two distinct interpretations of "Equal Pay for Eoual Work"-one the Government interpretation set forth in the Majority Report of the War Cabinet Committee, and the other the trade union interpretation set forth in Mrs. Sidney .Webb's Minoritv Report. Tho former interprets "Equal Pay for Equal Work" as equal pay for equally efficient work, i.e., equal piece rates; tile latter as equal pay for a similar job, i.e., equal time rates. Secondly, that having determined upon their reflective interpretations, the investigators "find that, in normal times tho question of " Equal Pay for Equal Work," meaning equal pay for exactly tho same work, hardly ever arises.. Industry divides itself into men's work and women's work, and ivith tho exception of the cotton operatives, who have solved their, own problem, work which is com-; moil 'to men and women rarely occurs. If a new industry were started tomorrow, and men and women were both employed, it would very soon be found that certain jobs were performed by men and certain other jobs were preformed by women; tho women's jobs in nearly all cases being the less highly-skilled and tlie less well-paid. In these circumstances it would he very difficult for a Government arbitrator' or wages tribunal to determine whether the women were being paid in proportion to their efficiency. The present time is a particularly critical and difficult one for women workers. Tho-transition from war-time work to peace-time work is causing n good deal of unemployment and a keen competition for the jobs which aro open to them. Public sympathy is extended to thoso women who are being deprived ot their jobs at the present time; but at the same time everybody realises that the men have the first claim to employment, and as the admission of women to many trade'! has been a concession on tho part of tho men for the war period only. What, then, is woman s best hone for tho future? I.can see no other solution but a great extension of trade union organisation amongst women, and a workin" agreement with trade union men. So long as women remain unorganised they will be looked upon with suspicion and mistrust by working men, they will bo excluded from many trades and industries in which they could do .efficient work, and they will be forced to enter into bitter competition one with another in tho limited field of work open to them, thus keeping down the whole level of women's wages. Hut if they could become strongly organised in trade unions, so that, (lie men had nothing to fear from under-cutting, their work and wages could be 60 adjusted by mutual agreement as to give proper opportunities and a proper standard, of wages to women.—"B.C., in the "Daily News. A distinguished New Zealander, who before tho war lived for some time ( in Bcl"ium, recently returned there to *isit her" old home. Sho found that some of her ohi' tradespeople hod been shot, and nearly all her acquaintances had been at least imprisoned by the Germans: Tho women among them who suffered m the latter way for .their country, and ell soldiers' widows aro in future to lave tho vote. So women suffrage, which haii"htv European Governments used to renrd as a hideous possibility, has become to one of them at least a form of compensation instead.