MARRIED WOMEN WORKERS
HIRE THEM OR FIRE THEM?
There has been much controversy of late upon this oft-recurring problem, but in spite of all argument for and against the employment of married women to the exclusion ot the unmarried worker the happy solution of the problem has .vet to be found. Under the above heading the “San Francisco Clull-Bulletin” prints the following: “In our town two stores recently ‘cut their sales forces. In one store thirtysix women were released, in the other twenty-five. One store released married women and kept the single girls. The other store kept the married and released the single girls. A survey was taken of the married women workers, both of those who were released and those who were kept. In both cases it was shown that practically all were serious workers who were helping to pay for homes or who were supporting children. In several eases they were also supporting ill or idle husbands. “ ‘Yes, 1 know these facts,’ said one proprietor, ‘but T don’t think it helps matters, in the long run, to employ a married woman. It’s apt to make “gralters” of men. And the children get to running the street. The place for a woman when she marries is in her own home. If she goes to work she either takes a. job from a man or from some single girl who has no other means of support. That’s why I discharged the married women and kept the single girls.’, “ ‘I see things just the opposite.’ said the other proprietor. T think the married woman needs the job more than the single girl. Single girts aren’t really as helpless as you’d think. AP'st of them are living with their own families or their relations. And if they do lose a job temporarily it doesn’t involve so many dependents as it does when the married woman worker loses hers. Besides, in a time like this, when von must get your money’s worth
for every dollar you spend, the married woman is a better investment than tbe single girl. She is more steady and reliable and not so man-crazy. If I had my way I’d never employ anything but married workers.’
“The discharged women were also in disagreement. The single girls complained that the place for a married woman was in the home—that they should depend on their husbands lor support. That they ‘only work to buy nicer clothes,’ tliat they’ve no right taking jobs from men or other women who need them more. The married wo-
men retorted that jobs belonged to whoever could get them and fill them best, that no decent woman could stand by and let her children, and perhaps her husband, starve simply because she wasn’t supposed to work, that they didn’t buy a quarter as many clothes as the single girls, that, by building homes and keeping families together they earned first right to any job.
■‘There you have the arguments ol both employers and employees, argument"-, which are sweeping America today. Those arguments won’t subside with bettering business conditions. The more business the fiercer the clash between the two classes of women workers. AVhich side has the right of it ? Tf you were the proprietor of a store, faced with the necessity of ‘cutting’ your work force, which would you discharge, the married woman worker or the single girl ? “And how about the arguments o'" these two ‘bosses’? Do you agree that married women workers are more reliable? Or do you prefer the younger, livelier girl? Do you think think that married women workers should be supported by their husbands? And if he can’t find work, or if his wage isn’t sufficient to support the. children, what then? And how about ‘taking the jobs from men’? Does the married woman worker take the job from a man any more than the single woman worker? Or is there any real reason why men should he given first chance at jobs? Plenty of questions—no end to them. Not interesting? Just try them on any group of workers. Maybe you’ll be surprised J”
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Hokitika Guardian, 21 April 1931, Page 8
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683MARRIED WOMEN WORKERS Hokitika Guardian, 21 April 1931, Page 8
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