WOMEN TEACHERS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 February 1932, Page 6

WOMEN TEACHERS

THE MARRIAGE BAN

LONDON, Jan. 5

Tlie time-worn subject of the ban on married women in the teaching profession was debated at the conference of the National Union of Women Teachers.

A motion carried protested against the dismissal of married women teachers on grounds other than those of inefficiency. Local education authorities were called on to remove restrictions, and the Governmen was asked to introduce the necessary legislation.

Miss M. H. Buckley (Altrincham) urged the conference to make themselves objectionable until the matter was remedied. The argument that two incomes should not go into the same home was spurious. Marriage was not a misdemeanour, and nowadays no one could guarantee a husband maintaining his job. Mrs F. L. Booth (East Derbyshire) said that a woman up to the time of her mariage was considered fit to build up the Empire by training the children. Marriage did not blot out those good qualities. There was no ban on women M.P.’s, women 8.8. C. directors and doctors.

It the man had the sole income the woman felt that she depended for her very subsistence on him, and that could not contribute to’the well-being of the home. Motherhood was ennobling and produced a wider outlook on life, which was an asset to school life. It was impertinent on any governing body to riieddle with such conditions. Miss Edith Gatley (Blackpool) said that present conditions put a premium on misery. If a woman could plead an unhappy married life, or a sick husband, then she misht be given a post. ALL THE REFORM NECESSARY “The reasons for the ‘marriage ban’ are not abolished by indignation” comments the “Daily Telegraph.” “The most weighty is the general belief that marriage ought to imply parenthood, and therefore a married woman is not for a number of years to give the regular service required by such a profession as teaching. We find no answer to this in the protest that married women are allowed to be M.P.’s, women and factory hands. None "of these vocations demands the continuous regularity of attendance which is necessary to the efficiency of a teacher. There is however, a strong case for special consideration of the employment of married women in the profession. As things are, girls are almost all taught and controlled by sp ! nsters. The special knowledge of children which comes from motherhood is not allowed to operate in the schools. The married woman’s outlook on life is excluded from the methods and objects of education. Such a' system is surely not the best which could be devised. We do not expect that in teaching or any other field the majority of women will ever find marriage compatible with a professional career. Regulations which are not of absolute rigidity and per mit of special arrangements for exceptional people would affect all necessary reform.”