UNION FOR WOMEN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 39, 16 February 1943, Page 5

UNION FOR WOMEN

(0.C.) SYDNEY, February 2. Claiming that wives and mothers are a ''vast army of unpaid workers," a number of Sydney women have founded a union to improve women's status and conditions. They have called the union the "Wives and Mothers' Union," and have issued a charter, the first principle of which is that an independent minimum wage for wives and mothers must be guaranteed and paid by the State. "An immediate change must be made in the method of distributing wages of wives and mothers," the charter says. "No sane person can ignore the claim of wives and mothers, if only as essential workers, who perform such a multitude of vital household tasks, and who also risk their lives in motherhood, and are responsible for bringing into existence, maintaining and caring for the most important product of mankind—human beings. "Representation in Parliament of this important section of the community is to-day hopelessly inadequate, and for this reason, more than any other, their services are not assessed in practical financial terms. We demand that the labour and service value of wives and mothers be monetised, and the funds so created be used to pay an equitable wage to these producers of national wealth, and to finance the endowment of children." The charter also demands better housing, adequate natural and nutritious foods, sex education and medical treatment in schools, and economic justice for returned men.

WIVES AND MOTHERS

FINANCIAL STATUS WANTED

The women mentioned as forming the executive of the union are not well known in Sydney.