WOMEN'S FORUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 75, 30 March 1933, Page 13

WOMEN'S FORUM.

DOMINION TEACHERS. There was opened recently in London a home for teachers from overseas. It was founded by the New Empire League in memory of Mrs. Ord Marshall, who was closely connected with the movement. The home, which is to be called Ord Marshall House, is in Belgrave Eoad, Victoria, and contains nine bedrooms. It ie hoped that other similar homes will be provided, and that soon there will be sufficient residential and educated centres to house all the teachers who come to England from the Dominions for periodic training. Princess Louise, who opened the home, [stated: "Further houses like this would be a great advance, and English people all over the world would feel closer knit together." The Prince of Wales sent a message expressing his pleasure that the home had been started, and the Duke of Connaught also sent his good wishes. PETTICOATS OR PRISOfc". Petticoats or prieon is the choice before girls in Minneapolis who caused a stir in the city recently by wearing trousers in public. The mannish modes do not appeal to grandpa, who has brought the law to bear. It seems a , law passed 56 years ago is still in effect. On May 7, 1877, grandpa, thea a young man, but not in his ideas of what was what in garb, adopted a measure intended to decide for all time who should be entitled to wear the trousers in the family. "No person," declared this ordinance, "shall appear on any street, or in any public or exposed place in the city in a state of nudity, or in any dress not belonging to hie or her sex." The measure defined any violation as disorderly conduct, and eet the maximum penalty of 100 dollars fine or 90 days in gaol. Now the bright young things of Minneapolis, as well as those of maturer years, who fail to see why man should h-ve all the sartorial freedom, have to decide just how important trousers are to them.

TOO DANGEROUS. Women riders are still not to be allowed to ride on the famous Cresta Run at St. Moritz, Switzerland, says the London "Daily Telegraph." Mr. J. E. Heaton, the famous American rider and Olympic bobber, who recently broke the world's record for the run, proposed amotion at the annual general meeting of the St. Moritz (Cresta) Tobogganing Club, at which the Hon. Frank Curzon presided, that the rule passed in 1929 forbidding women to ride the Cresta should be rescinded. Mrs. Mollison (Amy Johnson) and Mrs. Irving Netcher spoke on behalf of the women. Several were present, as they are allowed to be non-active members. The motion was outvoted by 15 to 10. It was considered by the officials and men riders that the sport of riding the Cresta was too dangerous for women.

UNEMPLOYED GRADUATES. Unemployment is often regarded as affecting only manual workers, writes an Edinburgh correspondent of the "Otago Daily Times." That that is a mistaken view is shown by some disquieting figures given by Professor Bowman, of Glasgow University. He estimates that of the women who qualified as teachers in 1931, nearly half are still unemployed, and that of those who qualified last year only one-third have been absorbed, in spite of the severe limit placed upon the number of entrants. He suggested that some of the women might find work in poultry and fruit farming, bee-keeping, and the like. That idea may sound all right in theory, but I doubt whether it will work out in practice. The professor should realise that it was precisely in the hope of avoiding what are foolishly regarded ae euch menial and unskilled occupations that many girls went to the universities and provided themselves with degrees which they now find to be a drug in the market. The plain truth—unpalatable as it may be —is that we have been producing more university graduates than we need ourselves or can export.