WOMEN'S FORUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 31, 7 February 1933, Page 10

WOMEN'S FORUM.

CAREERS FOR GIRLS. A series of advisory addresses have been arranged by the Minister of Laboui in England in conjunction with head mistresses on the subject of business organisation and salesmanship for girls The first advice given by the speaker tc the girls was that they should remain at school as long as possible. The mental training was invaluable. "What youi employer wants," ho said, "is not youi beautiful face, but your mind, youi capacity for realising quickly what youi job is, for staring facts in the face. Witt a university education you will stand ,s good chance of getting a mental equipment that will enable you to tako charge of other people." Ho told them that the whole vasf organisation of business was devoted tc supplying the common needs of the people. It was only if they regarded business as a form of public work thai they were likely to find a good deal of happiness in it and success. "You have got to like people," he said. "That is important. It is of no use going in for retail distribution if people's faces put you off. You want to adapt yourself tc other people's minds and quickly get some idea of what is running' in the mind of the customer." The Envied Buyer. As business girls became more skilful in knowing what other people would like, continued Mr. Marquis, they stood a chance of being selected as buyers, and buyers were terribly important people, "They get quite colossal sums," he said, "Junior Cabinet Ministers would bow their heads before the salaries of buyers, But the shop assistant spends a long time studying public taste before becoming a buyer, and it is a terribly precarious job. It is one of the trades in which women have at least an equal chance with men." Turning to ancillary jobs, he said there was a whole field for people who could dress windows, but he added thai as there is only about half a dozen firstclass window-dressers in the country they were precious. Writing advertisements was another field worth exploring and advertisement drawing provided ail exceptionally good opening for people who could draw the simple things men wear. It was easy to find people whe could draw the complicated things women wore, but he declared that he did not know a dozen people in this country who could draw the simple sort of suit he was wearing. TOO FAST. "Women are becoming the pacemakers of the world. There is a real danger that womanhood is being destroyed by a vain ambition for combined athletic and intellectual perfection." These strong words of warning were uttered by Sir William Arbuthnot Lane, the famous surgeon, in an interview with a "Daily Express" representative, when he commented on the case of the student, Miss Audrey Pretty, who had a passion for physical perfection, and died suddenly while at work at her university. Women's desire to excel in everything that civilisation holds is placing too great a strain on them, Sir William considers, and on men, too. It is wrong to force mankind to live at its physical limit. "In flying, swimming or science, women are setting the pace for man;" ho said. "They are even beating him and driving him to make greater and yet greater efforts. Excessive physical exercise, followed by the strain of study,- results in a destruction of brain cells. A girl has great physical disadvantages compared with a man, and these young women at the universities should be' examined by an expert three or four times a year. Many of them cannot stand the pace." MARRYING AGES. The average age. of the 62,068 brides who married in England and Wales in the first quarter of last year was 26.47 years, and that of the bridegrooms 29.04 years. Only 15 per cent of the women and 4 per cent of the men were married before they were 21 years of age. It is said that a safe rule in marriage age relationships is for a man to marry a woman half his age plus seven. It holds good for any time of life. A well-known woman doctor holds, however, that the ideal marrying ages are 24 for the man and 22 for the woman. She is not, however, very cheerful concerning the chances of the marriage lottery. Fifty per cent of marriages, she says, are failures, and only per cent are unqualified successes. i . .