EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10290, 27 May 1919, Page 7

EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK

(By H.8.W., in the Auckland “Star.”)

-In view of the deplorable sex feeling that has arisen, and is being widely fostered with regard to ; the employmont of women in tb.© industrial lit® of our country, it is desirable to examine the existing state of affairs, with a view to suggesting a remedy, should one be required. It is no use dismissing the subject with the airy declaration that these girls must get out of their billets and let their places be taken by the men who have been fighting. 111-considered resolutions carried by a body of people will not help, except to stir up more bad feelIng. it is almost always overlooked, or at best gets scanty recognition, that long before the war, in fact, for a great number of years, the army of women acting aa typistes, clerks, in factories and shops, had been steadily increasing. Even twenty years ago, when there was an outcry about women invading men’s departments, there was a correspondingly strong feeling that in many oases the boot was on tb© other foot, and that men were doing work that by right belonged to women, to the neglect of the essential Industries of the country, such as mining, agriculture, and other pursuits calling for a . larger amount of physical, strength and endurance such as was believed to bp beyond the scope of women. In a largo department store an Christchurch a stalwart young giant Was employed selling stockings to women, and it was only after soma remonstrance to the management ”hy women who preferred to buy their stockings from a woman that the gentleman disappeared from behind that counter. ■Without going into the merits of the question, it is recognised that if women were suddenly withdrawn from tiae industrial system, the bottom would drop out of it. That being so, it behoves us ta examine a little into their standing in that industrial world. It is too late in tho day to deny women the right to do anything that hand or brain can do for the support of the owner. That point was really settled when the . first woman was taught to read and write. The trouble lies far down in the refusal to recognise the principle of equal pay for equal work, irrespective of sex. Women are not to be blamed for the fact that, broadly speaking, they have been turned into a great army of blackleg labour. Oiganised .women in the past protested, led deputations to the Government, and passed resolutions. But in answer a deaf ear turned to their request alike by Government and private employers. Now these chickens have developed the nasty habit ot coming home to roost, and naturally, men do not like it. ■ Well, women do not like it either. They would infinitely prefer being paid at tho same rale aa men when doing the same work. There would be a welcome weeding-out of tho incapables, and an incentive to put their best into their work, and not looking on it merely as a temporary'measure of relief from cold or hunger - or from a penniless condition. Women 5-ro not fed and clothed from tho clouds. They have bodies to be covered and stomachs to be filled, and have even a number of other wants duo to our highly-developed civilisation. Apart from necessity, there is tho inherent human right to develop oneself according to ones nature, not 1-0 bo

the square hole—of no use to one’s day or generation. i But the peculiar bitterness is directed’ against the women who have taken men’s during the war, and now are unwilling to relinquish them. Even here there are two sides to consider, and a good deal to be said on the woman's side.

The employer, whether it bo an insurance office, bank, or private person, having secured the reliable service which he freely acknowledges he is getting from the great bulk of female labour—and at a cheaper rate than ever before—is not inclined to give it up. The women themselves plead with perfect uu... that the war has made all the difference in their ability to keep their intention, spoken or*, understood, to vacate the positions on the men’s return.

In numbers of these cases their lovers have made the supreme sacrifice, and, besides the sorrow of their 'loss, they mourn the hope denied them of a home, and children of their own. , 170men cannot transfer .their affections easily, and it takes a girl a good many years to recover, if ever she does, from such a knock-out blow, sufficiently to piece together her life. Sadder still is the lot of some whose • promised husbands have corrie gock with a wife. The war has mode a good deal of difference in families, and many women cannot expect help from relations, and see nothing for it but to look out for themselves. and under such circumstances naturally cling to their present positions. ■

There is a widely-expressed feeling that women would be much more usefully employed building up their country by bearing and rearing children to repair the wastage of war, and no doubt, given proper conditions, such a life for most women would be the ideal one. But matrimony, and indeed motherhood itself, is being robbed of its delight and charm by the conditions under which so many women have to live. The ordinary woman glories in tier children, thinking nothing too much trouble that adds to their well-being, trying to do her duty by them to the beat ef her ability. But bearing children is greatly a question of money. In a middle-class household tho advent of a baby casts anything in tho neighbourhood of £2O. Then every mouth costs a little more, and 1 clothing, boots, and other items must be provided. Even with the best of husbands, a woman hesitates to ask for much-needed money, knowing it is a hard struggle to provide it. With a selfish or improvident man the case is so abominably hard that small wonder there is no warmth in the idea of another child. Let men show they are in earnest in wanting to stop the under-selling of their labour. They have the remedy in their own hands. The labour unions are earning the gratitudq of thinking women by adopting equal pay for equal work as one of their planks. If they can carry that reform, and the further one of State endowment of motherhood, there will be an end to what otherwise threatens to become an undesirable position alike for our women and men