Woman Writer

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 360, 17 May 1946, Page 7

Woman Writer

"T CAN’T say that I am at all well up in the study of economics, but in the present economic set-up, as I see it, there is only a certain amount of money to be circulated. While that is so, I do not see how the idea will work unless family allowances are made adequate." That is what Isobel Andrews had to say when we asked her for her opinions. In theory, she supported the equal-pay-for-equal-work school, saying that if a woman was working alongside a man in an office, or at a machine in a factory, and doing the job just as well as the man, then she should have the same wages. "It is bad, I think, that a woman should be accepted as worth less than a man in such circumstances. "But — and here’s a point — most women who are working are single. Certainly some of them have dependants or other responsibilities, but a very large percentage are working purely for themselves. That, in itself, puts the man at a disadvantage, for he, in the great majority of cases, has a wife and family to keep." Mrs. Andrews quoted the case of the young man, just married, earning, say. £300 or £350 a year. "That man," she said, "is at a disadvantage compared with a woman doing a similar job for

a similar salary. His standard of living must necessarily ‘be lower than hers. "But I certainly do say that a woman with intelligence and ability should not be asked or expected sto do the same work as a man for lower pay. And the only solution, it seems to me, is to make the family allowances full and _ sufficient."