CAREERS FOR GIRLS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 489, 5 November 1948, Page 13

CAREERS FOR GIRLS

End-of-Term Talks from 2YA |

DERNEATH all the pleasant seasonal thoughts about preparations for the impending summer holidays lies something a little deeper and more important. That is the future of the thousands of boys and girls whose schooldays are on the point of closing. For a boy, the choice of a career is com-

paratively easy; so many avenues in professions and trades are open to him. Girls still find the field more restricted, and so, with a view, appropriately enough, to helping girls to select careers for themselves, and assisting parents in offering guidance, the Talks Department of the NZBS has prepared six weekly talks under the title of Careers for Girls. Several experiénced professional

women, and one or two men, have been interviewed, and will talk about various aspects of their work and about the prospects offering to girls leaving school to-day. The talks, which will include discussions of office work, teaching, journalism, photography, commercial art, welfare work, library systems, and the running of such businesses as frock shops and beauty salons, will start at 2YA at 10.25 a.m. on Thursday, November 18, and be heard weekly at that time for five weeks thereafter. Unlocking the Doors The expert shorthand-typist can tap on and unlock countless doors in the business world,. according to a sten-

ographer. There are numerous careers fot a girl who has passed her intermediate, special or reporter’s examination. Special Commissions travelling round the country require stenographers; distinguished visitors often have a typist assigned to them; several girls have been appointed Judges’ associates, and some are already overseas doing stenographic and other work in Legations. In New Zealand to-day there are more than 90 women accountants, as one of them will tell listeners. Some practise publicly in their own right; others are registered accountants employed by business firms. And, of course, if a girl accountant gets married, she is far better equipped to budget for her weekly expenses and to understand her husband’s financial. projects and worries, and if the need arises, has her job to fall back on. Somehow the word teacher savours so much of one’s own schooldays that a girl leaving school doesn’t think much of the idea of continuing with school work for the rest of her life. But a kindergarten teacher and a primary’ school teacher will talk about their jobs, how they were attracted to them and what keeps them teaching. A secondary school teacher will take the subject a little further, explaining that teaching staffs look on their, work as a means

towards dispelling prejudice and ignorance, and enabling >eople to live normal, useful and interesting lives. Getting the News Whether they thought the profession of journalism simply meant a round of high excitement interspersed with social functions, there are to-day more women than ever on the staffs of newspapers, says one woman journalist. She

peueves that GCNCo a girl proves that she has the educational qualifications and some natural aptitude, she can with practice develop a good news sense, which is a reporter’s most valuable stock-in-trade. She thinks, too, that a Diploma of Journalism course at a University can provide a _ good background. While a girl who decides to go in for photography should learn all she can in ae ST ie ee

each departMent---pilitine, »>rerrwne? colouring, and so on---there is no reason why she should not engage in actual camera work, for there are quite a few women among the leading photographers in New Zealand to-day. Nor has commercial art been overlooked as a possible career. At the moment there is an acute shortage of commercial artists, and agents are constantly on the lookout for promising juniors. These are only excerpts from the first few talks in the series. The Talks Department expects that listeners will find much useful and practical advice to help them and their daughters in solving one of the knottiest problems of adolescence-What am I going to be? LE TT TL