Women’s Proper Place

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 754, 29 August 1929, Page 8

Women’s Proper Place

Right to Work in Industry

The foUotcing article defending icemen's right to a place in industry is fr™ t£r2ZrZ B. Be***. who recent* led a ro rte Minister of Public Tforkj at Auckland upon the question of unemployed seamen.

Now that women have established their position in professional, commercial and industrial circles and proved their worth in so many walks of life it is disconcerting to find that in some quarters their right to work is questioned, and the opinion voiced that they are displacing men to the detriment of the community at large. To begin with let ns take this timeworn argument of men being displaced by women. Is it not a fact that man has usurped woman’s place in many vocations formerly belonging solely to her? Until a couple of centuries ago women were the brewers, milliners, dressmakers, bakers, preservers, distillers of perfumes and concocters of medicines. Men have undertaken the duties connected with these callings and women have been forced into other avenues of employment. It is not retaliation; merely reciprocity—and a proof of the adaptability of both to change of circumstance. Someone with an ultra-masculine complex may retort that wherever the Industries mentioned have been adopted by men they have been expanded and commercialised to the advantage of all concerned, but I venture to say that given the same opportunities of advancement and command of the wherewithal the average woman could have done ss well. It mast be remembered that ft is only within recent years that we have won social and political freedom, and the feminine progress made so far is by no means a meagre attainment. Having claimed and won a recognition of equality socially and politically we expect to be not tolerated but welcomed wherever we feel we can serve with gain to ourselves and with benefit to others. All modern thought is in favour of the idea of women working with men on equal terms In every walk of life. We no longer suffer from the inferiority complex which so retarded our advancement in former times. Woman has tasted of the tree of knowledge, and intends to see that she is well supplied with the good things of life—and is prepared to earn them for herself. NECESSITY—NOT CHOICE With most of us It is not a mutter of choice hut of necessity which causes competition with men in their hitherto exclusive vocations. Woman's right to work being grunted, it only remains to be considered what recompense shall she demand for her services. Loud complaints are sometimes heard that some girls and women receive as great a salary as men; even Cabinet Ministers have been known to voice this as if it were a grievous wrong. What would these objectors have? An established and universal system

whereby female workers would work for less than —bat do the same work

Surely this is no ideal to strive for, but rather a retrogressive and wasteful policy unworthy of consideration at this stage of progress. A great deal is said and written nowadays about single women in business not having the same responsibilities as men and this is given as a Justification for their receiving lower wages, bat as there is no differentiation made between married and single men oa this score I fail to see why the women and girls should be marked out for this distinction. They are, as a rule, less extravagant in the expenditure of the rewards of their toil, and many of them have dependants and heavy responsibilities. MARRIED WOMEN IN WORK The position of married women in employment at the present time is a rather difficult problem. As an advocate of the complete equality of women and recognising the right of every woman, married or single, to shape her own destiny, I do not attempt to advance the theory that a wife's place is within the four walls of her home. I look forward to the day when the wife or mother who finds housework uncongenial or realising that she can be of more use elsewhere will be enabled by means of community kitchens, creches, nur-sery-schools and State-aided domestic help to seek avenues of employment suited to her desires and capabilities. But unfortunately there is another class of married woman that, greedy and avaricious, pushes its way into employment and displaces fathers of families and single men, women, youths and girls who are thus bereft of a livelihood. Perhaps one is too idealistic to expect in these materialistic days that women will refrain from seeking employment in order to allow their necessitous brothers and sisters to benefit, but ways and means should be devised whereby the married woman who is well provided for could be prevented from ousting from their positions those who really need to earn. There is a crying need for action in this matter, and it behoves employers of all classes of labour to investigate the circumstances of the members of their staffs in order to discover how many married women are earning wages that rightly belong to others. Many of these women camouflage themselves by using their maiden names or assuming false ones —an admission that they have misgivings as to their right to compete in the labour market. The question of married women in employment has become a burning one, and should receive the attention it warrants. M. B. SOLJAK.