Where Is Woman's Place ?

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 40, 26 November 1938, Page 7

Where Is Woman's Place ?

JJ'NEMPLOYMENT is a problem vthich affects, to a very particular degree, the woi'k of women both in industry and in business, writes Margaret Bondfield, former British Minister of Labour, in the Christian Science Monitor. In the matter of industry it is customary in some trades, particularly in Great Britain, for women to continue work after marriage with only a very slight break. Prior to the war, even the coming of children was considered incidental to the main job of augmenting the family income. In other areas the tradition was for women not to work for wages after marriage; but, during the war, the call for women’s labour in the manufacture of munitions brought hundreds of thousands of women out of their homes and created that disorganisation from which we have not yet recovered.

\ England is now proceeding to dislocate family life once more by the call made to women not only to make munitions but to prepare themselves to take their place as active participants in army organisation. '

I think I may claim to know the mind of the average working woman of Great Britain, and I would say that the overwhelming majority of married women in industrial areas would prefer to be able to build up their home life and to feel that their husband’s wages were sufficient to maintain the family. In other words, it is not a matter of principle so much as of expediency and economic pressure which impels so many of these married women to seek gainful employment. Women are divided in their view of the necessity for protective legislation for women. This is a matter which the industrial woman has settled and will continue to settle for herself. She will retain the protective legislation which regulates her work, hours, and, sometimes, wages, just so long as she doesn’t feel strong enough to fight the industrial system single-handed. It h her guarantee of reasonable conditions of work. The cry is sometimes raised, both by men and by womei, that women should remain at home and let men take their jobs, while in other cases one hears the criticism by married and single women, as well as by men, that married women should stay at home and let the single women ha\ i their jobs. That kind of competition for jobs should be settled by a better planning cf industry, so that there will be enough suitable work

Margaret Bondfield’s Opinion

to go around for those who have either the desire or the necessity to earn their living. I think, most of those who, like myself, work in, the industrial areas would agree that under present conditions the pocket-money women workers—that is, women who don’t need the money but only want a little extra spending money