"HOUSEHUSBANDS"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 119, 5 June 1937, Page 11

"HOUSEHUSBANDS"

Meeting Domestic Problem

"Househusbands" is a new word in the English vocabulary, but it seems possible that it may become f amiliar theTe before very long. • The fact is that boys have discovered that, once they turn their hanfi to it, they can become genuinely domesticated, ,can thoroughly enjoy the life of a homeworker— -supported as it is in these days by a host of handy gadgots and contrivances — and ' can turn it into a quite enviable profession. Eecently, the Ministry of Labour has .begun the training of "househusbands" in the "special areas" of South Wales, where unemployment has been hardest, putting them ' . "through four weeks of instruetion in elementary kitchen and household work iollowed by six weeks of specialised training in tho duties of house-boy or kitchen assistant, and then drafting them away — with railway faros paid — to localities whore their sorvices are required. "House wife" to Continue But this, of course, is -not going to out the "housowife" from what she has always been taught to believe is her rightful sphere. It will merely have the effect of acting as' the sort of spur, whieh is always felt when "alien" competition enters any departnient of work. Girls are already showing .signs that a profession whieh, for a number of years, has stood low in popular cstcem is — now the male' qloment has invadefi it — boginning to be regarded with higher favour. Plans have been discussed in South Wales for the raisinp of the domestic status, and the Juveu ilo Employment Committee of thc Car diff Corporation has approved a dc/in

ite wage" sCale; a maximum day of nine hours with two and five hours olf on alternate Sundays; at least one half-day lioliday each week, and a - fortnight's vacation, with pay, after four months' , service. Up in the north-east of England,- and in South Wales, too, special training, lasting for as long as nine months, is being given by the Ministry of Labour to girls of 14 who — taken from the poorest liomes where "real eggs" for cooking and anything in the shape of a well-stocked. "larder are unknown- — are. .being trained to deal intelligently with conditions in homes, where the yeariy income is anything up lo £5000. Moreover, a genuiuo cffort is- being made to accord to the worker, .who serves the domestic affairs of life a status whieh is at least equal to that of the worker who serves thc faclory or tho ofiice. Eecently, tlie Electrical Association for Women offered a prize for the bcst new name for domcstlo workers, contending that to 'call such workers "servant," as is customary' in Mayfair, or "maid" as in Kensington, or merely "the girl," as in the suburbs, has the effect of stamping upon them a serious • sense of inf eriority. A committee of the association carefully weiglied the merits of ' ' domestv ■ eian, " " household-worker, " . " superior assistant, " * ' 1 house-a'ssistaitft, ' ' Jiiou.se-1 hold-aid," and even went so far as to consider tuch suggestions as "electaid" and "housecrafter. " In thc end, the award went to 'rdomestieian" and "housohold-worker,'' but just now long it will take to train eitlier Mayfair or ' tho suburbs to chango tlioir haiiits of nomc-nclature nobody likes to pi'ophesy»