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Hokitika Guardian, 5 January 1927, Page 2

Ix England a good deal of controversy lias arisen lately on the question of whether women should be barred from the teaching profession. -The same question was debated in. this Dominion recently, when the 'Education oßards decided that the female teacher should not continue to possess the right, regardless of conjugal condition, to receive without question a post for which she is the highest applicant upon, the grading list. The matter was discussed by a correspondent of the “Economic Record,’’ the organ of the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand, and a 'Wellington correspondent, after examining the rival contentions, summed the position up by saying that tile time has gone when ‘the platitudes that a woman’s place is in the home” should over-rule the right ol a human being to choose her own career. The obvious reply to this is that “woman’s place is in the homo” is not a platitude. It was not ordained by Tuan that woman, when, married, should sjicml a large portion nt her time with her. children. There are more than enough exceptions to this rule, hut in ordinary life it still applies. No one opposes the right of woman to choose a career, but it is not seriously disputed that for the sake of the race the responsibilities of marriage and of rearing a family transcend-ihe others, and that there are few who can accept the divided duty of employment and the tips of home without one or the other suffering. The correspondent refers to this phase when she writes:

“Woman’s function, so the argument proceeds, is the mothering of the next generation ; and the depravity of the mother who commits the care of her children to their own. devices or to a. governess is only exceeded by tbo married woman who remains childless so that she may engage in some profession. . . If flic Legislature is to accept the responsibility of regulating, tlie domestic life of women, whv not deal with those outside tile teaching profession who relegate the care of their offspring to paid servants while they themselves engage in professional fluties or in an enervating round of social duties?” Though the question is legitimate, it does not suggest that the contention of those who oppose a division of duly is wrong, though it does indicate the difficulty *of applying a general principle nil round. Economic conditions may force a marred woman to work outside the home—if they do, tile facilities should not he denied her—hut on general lines the attitude of the New Zealand Education Boards was a sound one.