WOMEN'S HEALTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 22, 27 January 1937, Page 12

WOMEN'S HEALTH.

STRAIN UPON PHYSIQUE. AUSTRALIAN FACTORY GIRLS. Factory girls, who are among the future mothers of Australia, should be working a 40-hour week without reduced pay, according to the secretary of the Manufacturing Grocers' Union, Mr. F. Riley, who stated recently that more than 50 per cent of his organisation were girls and women (says the Melbourne "Age"). The Federal Minister of Health (Mr. Hughes) deplored the static birth rate, and. warned the nation of the dangers associated with an underpopulated country. Such expressions brought Mr. Hughes and other public men into prominence. But if Australia were to solve the population problem, it was necessary to go deeper than utterances. In many industries, the employment of girls and young women enabled profits to be accumulated, the human element weighing little in the pell-mell rush of work- But long, arduous hours of toil took toll. Juveniles and young women wore being undermined in health, in factories and shops, because of the continual strain upon their physique. These youngsters, and others slightly older, would later be expected to swell the statistician's figures, and lower the future graph-line of bad health. Such would be impossible it young women could not have more leisure.

Mr. Riley said that standing up to machinery all day was not conducive to good health, nor to the betterment of the Australian race. The 40-hour week was necessary from another aspect. In his industry, for example, the ratio of males to females, in one large section, was something like one to eight. More than one-half of the females in the manufacturing grocery industry were under 21 years of age. Where piece work operated, juveniles were generally placed on such tasks, in which case the number of juvenile female workers increased. According to certain medical and scientific investigation, young people developed lateral curvature of the spine, and other deformities through factory work, caused through remaining in the same position for too long. Necessity For Shorter Hours. In 1927, continued Mr. Riley, Chief Judge Dethridge said: "Many female workers now work only 44 hours ... it would probably be beneficial on the whole if that were made the maximum for all females who are engaged in similar work." Mr. Riley said that although that judgment was given almost ten years ago, it was only recently that many manufacturing grocery factories had voluntarily reduced the hours to 44 per week. The necessity for shorter working hours for women could not be over-emphasised. This had been stressed by Dr. Ethel Osborne, in 1924, when investigating conditions of women in the printing and allied trades. In many sections of the manufacturing industry girls had to stand all day, no record being kept if a girl were absent from work as a result. The staff of the Factories Department was insufficient to cope with the number of factories to be inspected, and the conditions under which girls worked were not always according to the Act. Factory temperatures varied; some were cold and draughty, others hot. Some worked continually in the dust of different groceries, spices, and so on. Industrial dusts were irritating and adversely affected health. The pyschological effects, too, were detrimental. Consequently, if we were to produce healthy citizens in future years, women workers would have to be studied. It was bad enough to have unemployment among men, because the Federal Government would not implement the 40-hour week, in accordance with the Geneva decision, but it was one of the most serious problems of the Commonwealth when the health of future mothers was affected.