WOMAN'S SPHERE.

Auckland Star, Issue 123, 24 May 1919, Page 11

WOMAN'S SPHERE.

YHE OF THE HOUR.

EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK. (By H.8.W.) In view of the deplorable jex feeling that has arisen, and is being widely fettered with regard to the employment o f women in the industrial life of our country, it U desirable to examine the existing state of affairs, with a view to a should one be required- It Uno use dismissing the subject with the airy declaration that these iirls must get out of their billets and let their places be taken by the men who fc3ve been fighting. 111-considered resolutions carried by a body of people will no: help, except to stir up more bad teel-

It is almost always overlooked, or at best gets ; cant recognition, that long before the war. in fact for a gTeat number oi years, the army of women acting as iyp'istes, clerks, in factories and shops, had been steadily increasing. Even twenty years ago. when there was an otfKry about women invading men's departir.erts, was a correspondingly strons feciir.g that in many cases the boot was on the other foot, and that men were doicj work that by right belonged to women, to the neglert of the essential industries "f the country, such as mining, amculmre, and other pursuits, calling for a larger amount of physical strength and endurance siuii as was believed to be beyond the scope of women.

In a large department store in Christchunrh a stalwart young giant was employed selling stockings to women, and it wae oniy after some remonstrance to the management by women who preferred to buy their stockings from a woman that the gentleman disappeared fiom behind that counter.

Without going into the merits of the question, it is recognised that if women ■were suddenly withdrawn from the industrial system, the bottom would drop out of it. That being so, it behoves us to examine a little into their standing in that industrial world.

It is tco late in the day to deny womea the right to do anything that hand or brim am do for the support of the owner. That point was really eettlei when the first woman was taught to read and write. The trouble lies far down in the refusal to recognise the principle of equal pay for equal work, irrespective of sex. Women are not to be blamed for the fact that, broadly speaking, they have been turned into a great army of blackleg labour. Organised women in the past protested, led deputations to the Government, and passed resolutions. But in answer a deaf ear was turned to their request alike *by Government and private employers. Now these chickens have developed the nasty habit of coming home to roost, and naturally men do not like it.

Well, women do not like it either. They would infinitely prefer being paid at the same rate as men when doing the same work. There would be a welcome weedins out of the incapables. and an incentive to put their best into their work, and not looking on it merely as a temporary measure of relief from cold or hunger or from a penniless condition. Women are not fed and clothed from the clouds. They have bodies to bo covered and stomachs to be filled, and have even a number of other wants due to out highly developed civilisation. Apart from necessity, there is the inherent human right to develop oneself according to one's nature, not to be pushed aside to become the round peg in the square hole—of no use to one's day or generation.

Put the peculiar bitterness is directed against the women who have taken men's positions during the war, and now are to relinquish them. Even her l- there are two sides to consider, and a. good deai to be said on the woman's side.

The employer, whether it be an insurance office, bank, or private person, having secured the reliable service which he freely acknowledges he is getting from the great bulk of female labour—and at a cheaper rate than ever before —is not inclined to give it up. The women themselves plead with perfect truth that the war has made aU the difference iv their ability to keep their intention, spoken or understood, to vacate the positions on the men's return.

In number; of these cases their lovers have made the supreme sacrifice, and, besides the sorrow of their loss, they mourn the hope denied them of a home, and children of their own. Women cannot transfer their affections easily, and it takes a girl a good many years to recover, if she ever does, from such a knock-out blow, sufficiently to piece together her life. Sadder still is the lot of some whose promised husbands have come bark with a wife. The war has made a good deal of difference in families, and many women cannot expect help from relations, and see nothing lor it but to look out for themselves, and under such circumstances naturally cling to their present positions. When our men went away it was confidently prophesied that none of them would ever willingly return to the cramped life of a city clerk. It was expected they would 'much prefer the freedom of an outdoor life in the country. Women are feeling outrnged that the Government hag done so little in this direction for the returned men, that the latter are reduced to envying the girls their position of badly-paid" clerk.'. Much greater facilities should be given the able-bodied men for making comfortable homes for themselves, and incidentally Joing good work on the land. Aβ has been pointed out repeatedly in these columns, it is only by greatly increased production that we can hope to meet tlie future with equanimity, and shoulder our tremendous burden of debt with success. There is a widely expressed feeling that women would be much mure Usefully employed buildCig up their country by bearing ■ and rearing children to repair the wastage of war, and no doubt, given proper conditions, eueb a life for most women would be the ideal one. But matrimony, and indeed motherhood itself, is being robbed of its delight and charm by the conditions under which so many women have to live. The ordinary woman glories in her children, thinking nothing too much trouble that adds to their ' well-being, trying to do her duty by them to the best of her ability. But bearing children is greatly a (|ue a tion of money. In a middle-i-kiss household the advent of a baby ousts anything in the neighbourhood of i.20. Then eery mouth costs a little more, and clothing, boots, and other items must be provided. Even with the best of husbande, a woman hesitates to ask for much needed money, knowing it is a hard struggle to provide it- With a --elfish or improvident man the rase is so abominably hard that small wonder there is no warmth in the idea of another child.

If the ilovernment is sincere in its ■wish to increase our population and removn the drawbacks faintly outlined, let them provide State endowment of motherhood, consisting of free attend-

ance of any selected medical man and free nursing attention after aceounchement. and an endowment paid to the mother for each child up to the age of sixteen. Such payments, as a. right, not as a charity, would make matriinonv more attractive to young women, and would do more to end the so-called race suidde than all the tirades thundered irom Press or pulpit.

Let men show they are in earnest in wanting to stop the under-selling of their labour. They have the remedY in their own hands The labour unions are earning the gratitude of thinkin" women by adopting equal pay for equal work as one of their planks. If they can carry that reform, and the further one of State endowment of motherhood tnere will be an end to what otherwise threatens to become an undesirable position alike for our women and men