WOMEN OVER THIRTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 February 1921, Page 10

WOMEN OVER THIRTY.

A BETTER BUSINESS ASSET THAN GIRLS. This is the title of a very frank article in the November Pearson’s Magazine. It is written by a large employer of labor. He says: “As soon as we were established in business we began experimenting with girls. Partly out of curiosity, partly- because we suspected it might have some business value, we kept a diary for girl and women who entered our employ. We recorded her age, her looks, her coloring, her education and previous training, why she had come to work, and why she left. “After two or three years we began to make up some tables and charts based, on the dairy, and it didn’t take, us long thereafter to decide that for our purposes women of mature years represented a far more profitable investment. THEY STICK IT BETTER. “In the first place, of course, we found that the older women were much more permanent. To keep five positions filled through the year we had to employ nine or ten girls, but if we limited ourselves to women over thirty we could fill five places, and keep them fully, by employing six or seven. The younger girls were quicker to pick up the work, but they were quicker, also, to pick up and leave. “The older women not only took the job more seriously, but they lost far fewer days from ill-health.” SIX SELECTIVE RULES. Here are six rules lie has made for employing women :-$■ “1. I never engage any woman under thirty years of age. Business for men is not ‘part of life’; it is life. In our company we want women who will regard it in the same tvay. “2. I choose short compact women rather than tall ones. Generally speaking, short, or middlesized people—men and women both—have more vitality than big people. Many say I am wrong about this. “3. I choose brunettes rather than blondes. They are less temperamental, less sensitive, and more dependable. “4. I look at the corners of their months. Drooping corners are often the mark of a woman who ‘enjoys poor health.’ Frequently they denote selfpity, the most deadening of all the emotions. “5. I look at their hair, their finger nails, and their shoes. Girls who don’t care enough to look well won’t care enough to do well. “6. I never employ a girl who is expensively dressed. The girl who is careless with her father’s money will probably be careless with things that mean to ui,’