EDUCATED WOMEN.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4768, 24 October 1924, Page 4

EDUCATED WOMEN.

THEIR REAL CAREER. (By Barbara Dane, in the Overseas Daily Mail), “ There is no future for highly educated women in England. They simply are not wanted.” This challenging remark wais made to me a few days ago by a man who is widely acquainted with the demand which exists for professional women workers. He added that, with the exception of the scholastic, legal, and medical professions, women with university degrees are finding that their talents and their training are wasted. “ Even' year the universities are turning out women graduates who, so far from obtaining highly paid positions, are glad to get work at £3 a week,” he continued. ‘‘ In years to come I believe the skilled household worker will be more highly paid than the struggling woman doctor, and that is the day for which women should prepare themselves. For none of these.careers is the education of the scholar necessary.” It is certain that men are realising more vividly than ever before that the comfort and efficiency of a home depend on its scientific equipment and on the skill of its staff of workers. The tendency in future, I think, will be to employ fewer but better household workers. Some highly interes'iing experiments in this direction have already been made. One householder who used to employ eight servants now employs four, two of whom arrive for duty at 7 a.m., leaving after eight hours’ work, to be succeeded by two equally highly skilled women, who continue the routine of household duties until 11 p.m.. All four women are high school girls who are experts in household science. They live out,, they are better paid than secretaries, teachers, or most professional women. The employer gets the high water mark of efficiency in all his household arrangements, he saves space in his house which otherwise would have to be devoted to the servants’ wing, and he also saves money, because women who are trailed in domestic economics know how to cook and work thriftily.

The women thus employed are well paid, they are independent, they have freedom, and the prospect of careers that will last long after middle age. 1 do not suggest that such an arrangement would be suitable in every home but the fact that it has been tried with great success points tu changing conditions in English home life.