Marriage Bar To Go

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 49, 26 August 1933, Page 9

Marriage Bar To Go

■ A wide field of advancement is opened up to women civil servants in Great Britain with the endorsement by the joint committee of officials and staff representatives of three important recommendations of tho Hoyal Commission, states the "Daily Mail." These recommendations involve: — Tho relaxing of tho rule against the continued employment of women after marriage. A substantial reduction in tho number of posts hitherto reserved exclusively for men. Abandonment of the system of sog regation under which women and men. although doing the same work, are not permitted to work side by side. The decisions of the committee have not yet been made public. It is understood, however, that in regard to women civil servants who marry the committee supports the recommendation of the Boyal Commission that Departments should have discretionary power to retain women whoso •ontlnuefl services they regard as iv the public interest. On rare occasions in the past this power has been exercised, but the reeommendatlon will have the effect of Increasing the number of occasions on •which women will bo retained after marriage. .

The committee also supports the recommendation that all posts Should bo open to both sexes except when special reasons dictate reservation. It is not recommended, for instance, that women should hold administrative or executive posts in tho War Office, the Admiralty, and the Air Ministry. The committeo has also decided in favour of "aggregation" as opposed to the present system of "segregation," accepting the recommendation of the Iloyal Commission that as a general rule men anil women normally doing the sumo work should work under the same conditions. Miss Dorothy Evans, secretary of the National Association of Women Civil Servants, when told of the committee's decisions, said: "I regard tho non-reservation of posts and aggregation as moat important. They represent, another milestone in tho advance of women towards complete equality with men in the Civil Service. One great victory still remains to bo won—equal pay. So far tho Government refuses to discuss the question with us. But now that reservation has been abolished in principle, and with aggregation women will bo doing exactly the same work as men under exactly the same ronditions. we shall be in a much stronger posit inn ti> fight for equal pay."