FEMINIST FORUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

FEMINIST FORUM.

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY. A MEDICAL WOMAN'S CHILDREN. (By a Feminist Correspondent.). Nelson, in Lancashire, was, in pre-war days, one of the most prosperous of the cotton towns. There women could, and did, earn in the mills as much as, sometimes more than, men. For, thanks to its early and enlightened T.U. policy payment in the cotton trade was early freed from sex trammels. It was the work done and not the sex of the workers that determined the pay. But Lancashire to-day has no good wage for man or woman. In this dreadful fate Which has overtaken so many of our staple industries and, in particular, that of cotton, which once led the world in size and efficiency, all economic conceptions are being questioned. Is it a fact, for instance, that the restrictions imposed by the Factory Acts handicap women in obtaining employment? The question deserves asking in present circumstances when there are no less than 333,500 unemployed women and girls—a veritable army. No wonder Lady Astor has been asking, with some persistence in the House, what is the Government doing for unemployed women. Unemployed Women. In view of the fact that the Government intends to promote new factory •legislation the Home Office has inquired into the question of tie effect of restrictive legislation on unemployment of women. Their general conclusion is that there id little evidence that women have suffered industrially in the' past or are now handicapped by these restrictions. The distribution of men and women in industry, except in a few isolated cases, is determined by factors totally unconnected with special protective legislation. The main reason for the fact that there is a tendency for women to be found in the unskilled processes is that their industrial life is usually short. Most of them expect to leave'the factory when they marry, with the result that they are unwilling to spend years in training for skilled work, and that managers are equally reluctant to train workers whom they expect to lose as soon as they have become proficient at the more highly skilled processes. There is some division of opinion in feminist cicrles on the question of restrictions. Thus the Fabian Women's Group support special restrictions on, the work of women engaged in industry, and claim that many and substantial benefits have accrued to women through these restrictions based on sex. On the other hand the "Open Door" Council, as their name indicates, favour free and unrestricted admission. They quote Mrs. Sidney Webb, who, although she signed the F.W.S. statement, as having herself stated in the Minority Report: "Throughout the whole realm of manual.labour the women have found equally closed against'them, prior to the war, the occupations which had gained a relatively ' high occupational rate, together , with the opportunities for training which might have enabled them to prove their competence and aptitude for the work. . . and right down to the present century it was rare to find any woman, however competent (outside the cotton weavers and a few waistcoat makers, embroidei-ers, and other special- 1 ised needle workers), admitted to any industrial occupation at which she could earn more than the lowest grade of unskilled male labourers." Evil Economic Effects. The O.D. Council's comment on Mrs. Webb's statement is: "We do not suggest that this limitation, with its evil economic effects, was entirely due to legal restrictions. It was partly due to legal restrictions, partly due to custom and convention, and largely due to trade restrictions. But these facts refute the assertion that after more than seventy years of eo-called 'protective' legislation there was any wide opportunity 'for women to compete with men on equal terms." j Certainly Mrs. Corbett Ashby, that able Liberal woman, at present president of the three most influential feminist organisations, the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship, the International Women's Suffrage Alliance and the British Commonwealth League, at a recent conference declared that the economic freedom of women was still far away; -freedom to earn was not yet accorded them. It was at that conference that Mrs. Blanco White (Amber Pember Reeves) voiced a complaint that the Architectural Association intended to restrict the facilities hitherto open to women students. In fairness, however, it must be added that the alleged drastic measures of the segregation and limitation of the subjects women might take up are not to be taken. All that _ has happened is that the schools of architecture are now so full that the subject has been considered whether the proportion of women admitted might not have to be fixed. There was, however, apparently no suggestion that restrictions should be applied equally to men and women students. Restriction of Medical Students. That there has been decided restriction on women medical students cannot be denied, and Dr. Stella Churchill, speakin" on "The professional woman and her future," said .that, in addition to the -losing of several London medical schools to women there was a worse thing the almost entire absence ,in London of chances for post-graduate experience for women doctors. Out of twelve children s hospitals there was only one where a resident woman doctor was appointed. She demanded that capacity and qualifications of the candidate should be considered when an appointment is •made, not the sex. Married Professional Women. Dr. Stella Churchill was quite frankly of tie opinion that there is nothing wrong in professional women marrying. -She declared that many married medical women who did part work at clinics and others who as general practitioners, found no difficulty in keeping watch over their young families because in the course of their°work they were so frequently at home. Hard and often distressing work has not spoiled Dr. Churchill's sense of humour, for she declared that when children were young one of her colleagues laughed at her because she would hurry from the operating theatre to send a message home that the children must wear their coats because it had turned cold. • But her colleague married, and she also found time to send messages of the same kind about her children. Certainly Dr. Churchill is herself a standing refutation of the complaint that a woman cannot combine marriage with a profession, and a good deal of public work, too. > ,