KEY POSITIONS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 45, 22 February 1930, Page 20

KEY POSITIONS

Women

In a chivalrous defence of the business capacity of women, .Mr. P. A. Best, the managing director of a.w0.11-kfiown I London retail firm, said recently that he knew.of spmp women in tlio drapery trado wlio earned over £30.00 a year. . / . But how far, says ah English paper, do Mr. Best's observations in a limited and. specialised field1 apply to trade and industry in general? It is undoubtedly true that there is still a strong, prejudice against the ' employment of women in important key positions. . •..-■,.' . ' . . ■ ' ' ■•Many women have, of course, proved their ability beyond all .. question as business, directors, heads of colleges, and. iii various other high capacities. But these are regarded, complacently by most men as ''exceptional,)?' almost as .freaks:of -nature. .The fact ia.that it is still, extremely . difficult for an able-woman- to coinpcto .'successfully with an able man for any (really big job. The fight for spontaneous recognition is only a "little inorc than just begun. . It will not bo- effectively won until we aro" irrevocably fac.Q to faco with . a woman. . Prime Monster, a woman judge, a woman archbishop, aiid a few women running ja spectacular, triumph some.-of the greatest industries in the. land. Let-us face, tho prospect with equanimity. It will not be the end of all things.