EQUALITY URGED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 174, 25 July 1935, Page 9

EQUALITY URGED.

WOMEN TEACHERS.

WHEN SUPPORTING FAMILY.

INSTITUTE DISCUSSION.

After considerable discussion this morning the conference of the Dominion Federation of New Zealand Women's Institutes supported a Nelson remit which advocated that women teachers should receive the same salaries as men teachers in all grades, if the women are the main support of families. Some opposition was voiced to the proposal, and the wife of a schoolmaster went so far as to say that "we have to clear up the moral mess that is left behind by women headmistresses at mixed schools."

In presenting the remit, Mrs. F. Newman, said it had come to the notice of the Nelson branch that widows had been reinstated as teachers, and although they had had to rear and educate families their salaries had been reduced by as much as £30 a year. If women held the grade and were capable, why should they not draw the same salaries as men on equal grades. "Equal pay for equal work" was wanted.

"The teachers cannot help themselves, but we women can do a great deal to help them," said a delegate in supporting the remit. Men teachers were more often away than women teachers, she declared, although it had been positively sickening for members of her branch to have to listen to a man who quoted London figures arguing in the opposite direction. She knew of women suffering from injustice because they were women, and she appealed to those present to support the remit. Maori Teacher's Experience. "I speak with feeling on this question," said a Maori delegate. She explained that when her husband died she succeeded him as the teacher at a native school. Her husband had received £22 10/ a year for his services, but she had had to accept £13 11, although she had two children to support. She had an assistant who received no salary. A former school mistress also advocated the principle of equal pay for equal work. They were not discussing appointments, she said, but where actual appointments were made the salaries oi women should be equal to those of men. It would be found often that where both a man and a woman were offering for a position, the decision would go in favour of the man.

A woman, who announced that she was the mother of a large family, contended that men should receive the larger salaries. Junior men when asked to do things did not grumble, but very often the girls did.

In moving an amendment, which was not carried, that the words in the remit "where women are the main support of families" be deleted, another delegate said they wanted to avoid the possibility of supplying cheap woman labour and thereby spoiling the men's market.

The wife of a teacher said that women teachers were well placed where there were only girls to teach, but they could not control the boys. "We have to clear up the moral mess that is left behind by women headmistresses of mixed schools," she added. (Cries of "No.")

Mrs. Newman, in opposing the amendment, said that the purpose of the remit was to endeavour to secure more salary for those who had children or other dependents to support. In the case of single people it was felt that men should receive more pay than the women, as the men were saving for the future.