THE EQUALITY OF THE SEXES. A Retrogression in the Civil Service.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 70, 2 November 1901, Page 8

THE EQUALITY OF THE SEXES. A Retrogression in the Civil Service.

AMONG its expeuments, the Legislatuie of l\ew Zealand initiated a system of female entianchisement It admitted females into its civil service, it made it possible for women to hold almost any position into when previously only men were admitted, and, among other things, admitted on an equal footing with the male the female civil servant Intel esting reading those mixed lists of successful candidates, for they easily show the present position on a question of vital importance On the last list of civil seivice "passes,' No 80 of the boys has been passed into a Government Department, but No '21 of the girls is still waiting foi the opening that she is allowed to be as fully capable of filling as that boy • • • The laws of the countiy admit the equal rights of both sexes, but the gentler sex ceitainly does not get them A successful gnl candidate may be called upon to do any little menial task by hei superiors As a matter of fact, howevei she is rarely, if ever requned to perform duties that hei male superior out of his, consideration for the sex. deems to be unfit for her to perfoim On this account the senior in all cases prefers a male junioi to a female of equal attainments No female has as yet reached a high place in the public seivice The reason is obvious • • • Her position for which she undeigoes equal preparation with the male is in many cases only a temporary occupation to pass the interval between what sooner or later may probably the withdrawal fiom school and her marriage She has no ambition to climb to giddy heights m the service as with the male, and the fact that more than twice the number of male candidates are given positions over female candidates offeis a hint of what sooner or later may probably come to pass- — the withdrawal of females from the public service Having admitted women into the civil service, it is just that they should receive equal pay with the males, and while they remain in any branch (Education included) this should oe so If the Government admit the equality of the sexes, it should send along as many girls as boys into the service, seeing that under existing conditions they are admittedly equally qualified • • » In the meantime, however, those gals who wish to kill time for a few years are keeping boys out who want to do something more The boys want to keep their billets so that they may ultimately keep the girls The question of filling vacant positions in the civil service should be approached fanly Either send equal numbers of each sex, who have qualified, or keep the whole of the girls out The few years spent by female civil servants in the Government offices may teach them to keep the grocer s or baker s books correctly in after life, but it is unfitting her for woman's highest mission • • • If the piesent preference for boys over girls continues, the girls must eventually drop out altogether We believe that the countiy would be not one whit the worse, or that the female portion of the people one jot the poorer, were the service closed to them In most cases ambitious

parents are responsible for the female civil service candidate. It avails the country nothing for a woman to fill a position for a few years which must, in the natural course of things, be ultimately filled by a man Probably the very marked preference for males, as being more permanent, is the slowest, but surest, way of closing the service to females, who. at present, are not getting the full benefit of the law giving the equal rights with males