THE WOMAN WORKER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 64, 16 March 1936, Page 10

THE WOMAN WORKER.

"TOO OLD AT 30."

DISCUSSION IN LONDON.

(Special.—By Air Mail.)

LONDON, February 22.

Three hundred well dressed womeh, most of them free from economic worries,' met in London to discuss the tragedy of the woman worker who is growing old. They were members of the Over Thirty Association, which seeks to place in new employments women who have been displaced in industry and commerce by those younger than themselves. No one wants the woman over 30. the conference was told. Elderly teachers, nursery governesses, clerks, typists, companions, and domestic servants, ' the world appears to hate them all," Miss G. A. Rees, manager of the Great Marlborough Street Employment Exchange, told the conference. "Growing old for the majofity of women earning their living is a frightening thing," said Miss Roes. She described the deterioration she has watched, so often in women over 30. "She becomes too thin, her shoulders stoop, and the signs of prolonged under nourishment are inimistakcable. Worry and anxiety alter her facial expression, and her chances of competing with younger women, in spite of her better qualifications and her longer and wider experience, are rendered more difficult." There is no room for her in most of the recognised professions. In many instances a woman cannot get a job if she is more than 25. This stipulation frequently applies to stores assistants, waitresses soda bar dispensers and clerks. "The woman over 30 is often not only without work, but she is desperately lonely," • Miss Margaret Bondfield told the conference. "There must be a great crusade by women who have comfortable situations and homes and security." said Miss Bondfield. "The women who have given to the country the best of their lives are entitled to a decent old

a gc." Many of the speakers protested against tlifi assumption that women were too old at 30. "I appeal to managers of shops and bi<r stores to include older women among their saleswomen," said Miss Cecile Matlieson, of the International Council of Women. She said it would be pood business. "I am an 'outsize' myself, and my hair is grey," she said. "And I absolutely refuse to buy my corsets from a sylph barely out of her" teens. In America there are saleswomen of every age and figure, so that one can be sure of being served by soiiiq one with a worse figure than one's own," she added to the amusement of the conference.