AUSTRALIAN NEWSLETTER Education Of Women Idea ‘Blown Sky High9

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29984, 20 November 1962, Page 12

AUSTRALIAN NEWSLETTER Education Of Women Idea ‘Blown Sky High 9

[By FRANK PVDDICOMBE, N.ZPA. Special Correspondent]

SYDNEY.

The argument that education for women is a waste of money has been “blown sky high,” in a survey made by a staff tutor at Sydney University.

Mrs M. Dawson, a master of arts, conducted the survey, which involved 1070 Sydney university women graduates. The survey, which took two years, shows that 41 per cent, of married women who graduated from the turn of the century to the present time are working.

Of those who are not working, 30 per cent are planning to work in the future—most of them when their children are older. “This survey blows sky high the argument that education for women is a waste of money,” Mrs Dawson told a meeting of the New South Wales Women Graduates’ Association. She said that only 13.7 per cent, of all married women in the community had jobs. The survey showed that women university graduates went to State secondary schools, married graduates, and voted for the Liberal Party. They also tended to have happy marriages—only 3 per cent, of the women surveyed had been divorced. Mrs Dawson's figures on political affiliations were interesting. She said about 72 per cent, of women graduates voted Liberal, 13 per cent. Labour, and 12 per cent, said they were “swinging voters.” Most of the Liberal voters were medical or science graduates, Anglicans or nonconformists. Most of the Labour voters were arts and economics graduates, teachers and social workers, and Roman Catholics. But more than one-third of the women said they were not really I interested in politics. The survey showed that 60 ! per cent, of all women gradu- ' ates married graduates, but 82 per cent, of the women doctors married graduates. Fifty-five per cent, were educated at State secondary schools, 32 per cent, at private schools and 10 per cent, at Roman Catholic schools. But most of the women who went to State schools had sent their own daughters to private schools. Nine per cent, of the graduates were daughters of unskilled or semi-skilled workers and 30 per cent, were daughters of professional men.

Mrs Dawson said: “This seems to provide that your chances of going to the university are slight if you are the daughter of a manual labourer.’’ All the women said their parents encouraged them to go to the university, their mothers more than their fathers. Eighty - seven per cent, of the women graduates said they went to the University for a career. Not one woman said she chose a career that would combine ! with marriage.

Twenty per cent, said they took a secretarial course after they had left the university—as ”an insurance policy.” The survey showed that today one-third of the working women graduates have husbands who help with the washing, and half have husbands who help look after the children. ¥ ¥ ¥ White Man’s Magic Doctors are now believed to have won the battle to save the Life of the aboriginal tribal magic victim, Charlie Yundar. Psychologists were called in to break down the barrier against living, which Yundar had erected in his mind.

They convinced him he was not dying, and that white man’s medicine was stronger than the magic of his tribal witch-doctor. Yundar, a 19-year-old fullblooded aborigine, was admitted to Royal Perth Hospital two weeks ago after the witch-doctor had cast a bonepointing death spell over him. It was the second time this had happened. The first ritual, in December. 1959. followed Yundar’s accidental discovery of an ancient tribal man-making ceremony. Pointed twigs containing natural poison were jabbed into his mouth. He recovered after hospital treatment, but was readmitted two weeks ago, gaunt and mute, after the second death spell had been cast The boy is now eating and talking and laughing with his nurses Hospital doctors said this meant the boy now believed the people at the hospital were more powerful than his own medicine men.

No arrangements have been made, however, for Yundar’s discharge. Doctors fear that once the youth is released from hospital he will go back to his tribe in the Kimberley mountains. They believe this could be fatal for him because of the anger of the witch-doctor at the success of the hospital treatment over the bone-pointing spell. Efforts will be made to find Yundar a local job. ¥ ¥ ¥ Two In Headlines Two men in their thirties claimed headlines in the Australian national newspapers this week because of their unusual exploits. "Tarzan" Michael Fomenko, the Sydney High School athletic champion, was sighted in the dense tropical jungle of north Queensland for the first time in nearly a year. Fomenko, who has returned to civilisation twice in five years, only to go back to the trash, was reported by a German diver, Mr George Konrat, to have gone “eompletelv native." Fomenko is now 31.

Mr Konrat said Fomenko was wearing a coconut-fibre loincloth and carrying a big knife when he spoke to him in a jungle cave. “He had long hair and was tanned

almost black,” said Mr Konrat. He said Fomenko appeared in good health, but wanted no , contact with civilisation.

Mr Bill Penman, aged 37, has lived for eight weeks in a big, dirty, smelly hole in the ground at Katherine; in the Northern Territory. He is determined to stay there until November 22, when -e will have beaten the world record for length of stay underground, established earlier this year by a Frenchman.

Mr Penman was visited by a reporter this week, and the journalist said the cave was "hot, dank, inhabited by bats and snakes, and one of the last places I would want to spend more time than was necessary.” Mr Penman, in addition to establishing a record, wants to prove his idea that human beings could survive in the caves in a nuclear war. Three companions one man and two women—who entered the caves with Mr Penman, gave up after periods ranging from 13 to 16 days underground. ¥ ¥ ¥ Mother Ship

The motor vessel, Coongoola. which has sailed around the world once and made the crossing to New

Maland 11 times, will be the “mother ship” to this year’s Sydney-Hobart race yachts. The Coongoola will act as a radio relay station, sending reports from the yachts back to Sydney. Each yacht must report its position three times a day. The Coongoola is a 73ft ketch-rigged vessel. She is powered by two 150 horsepower diesel engines. She was built for luxury cruising in 1949. Forty-two yachts have entered for this year’s race, which begins in Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day. ¥ ¥ ¥ Pollution Canberra residents were shocked at a declaration by authorities that the artificial lake to be built in the Federal capital may pose a health hazard. Swimming may be banned because of pollution from septic tanks discharging into the Molonglo river. The river would run into the lake. The ban would run counter to a long-held official view that the lake would be a major tourist attraction. The costly lake, to be known as Lake Burley Griffin, is due to begin filling about the middle of next year. The Health Department has warned the poliomyelitis and hepatitis bacteria could be spread by septic tank effluent.