Girls in Business

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 848, 17 December 1929, Page 8

Girls in Business

Great Call for Leadership

GllvLS wlio are now spreading their wings for their tirst flight into occupational pursuits are given some advice — of superficial value only, it must be said—in a circular issued by the Education Department just before the close of the school year.

Some of the leaders in girls’* movements here believe that the young women of New Zealand are not fully utilising their opportunities as trainees for industrial leadership, and urge more intense business instruction.

However desirable it might appear that New Zealand girls should equip themselves with the knowledge necessary for business generalship, the young woman who finds herself upon the threshold of an industrial or a professional career discovers also that she is faced with peculiar difficulties. Most girls marry eventually, but when they leave school, as the department properly points out, they are unable to say wlfen they will marry, or even whether they will marry at all. The choice of a permanent career in circumstances of this ( description becomes a difficult task. Careful analysis of the numbers of women in occupations in the Dominion has convinced the department that four-fifths of our girls require as a preparation for their life work a training in domestic science and home arts. The curricula of both the primary and secondary schools are happily arranged for a foundation knowledge of these subjects, irrespective of the career chosen by the student, so that even those who are taking an intensive commercial or academic course receive some instruction in subjects which affect the home. WOMEN IN COMMERCE Many girls train for commercial positions, but as a general rule this class of employment leads into what in departmental phraseology is termed a “blind alley.” In exceptional instances a girl may qualify for accountancy and obtain a high-salaried job. Trades and factories are always open, to a limited extent; for the reception of girl apprentices, upon wages fixed by law. Promotion then depends largely upon ability, though one is perhaps super-optimistic to accept the Education Department's assurance literally when it says:—“ln every trade, the competent tradeswoman or assistant may look forward to going into business on her own account.” Among the professions, nursing and teaching are the most popular. The department includes music, hut while there is now taught a finer appreciation of music than hitherto, there are obviously few 7 er opportunities for pro-

fessional musicians than before the advent of mechanical music and talkies. Among those who deplore the backwardness* of women in industry in New Zealand is Miss .Jean Begg, one of the most prominent workers among girls in this country, who declares that the prejudice which New Zealand girls possess against anything suggestive of domestic work or of trades is hindering the natural progress of women industrialists. "Never was there a time when such great opportunity offered for women leaders in industry,” Miss Begg comments. “The girls with the education that should equip them for a start upon an industrial career will not enter jobs that will lead ultimately to business leadership. They are left to those who, in many instances are unable to acquire more f than a primary school education. HOME DUTIES AVOIDED “One of the most detrimental factors in this tendency is the fixation of an age limit for girls who enter industry. Employers will not take girls who have had a secondary education because they are usually over a certain age and must be paid according to their starting age, irrespective of their special qualifications for the job.” Miss Begg enthusiastically condemns the antipathy which girlfe display toward domestic duties. “What is the reason for this prejudice,” she asks, "when well over half of the girls return home eventually to assist in household duties for which they could elsewhere be securing a good return? “I look forward to the time when girls will recognise their place in industry, not overcrowding a few specialised branches, but exerting the ‘plus’ qualities which will stamp them as virile factors in the progress of the country.” Practical help has already been accorded in helping primary school girls into jobs during the past week or two, but in the main, parents will peruse carefully the departmental circular, weigh it against the marriageable possibility and find themselves little further ahead in deciding the future of their daughters. L.J.C.