Vocational aid for older women seekins jobs

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32862, 10 March 1972, Page 5

Vocational aid for older women seekins jobs

Many older women throughout the world find it necessary to earn a living but require training to qualify for employment, or retraining, after years of staying at home to bring up a family. Too often they cannot afford a course to equip themselves for the kind of work they would like and have to settle for unskilled jobs—if they can find them.

Realising the predicament of these women, Altrusa International, an Americanbased women’s service organisation. started its Founder’s Fund for Vocational Aid. The F.F.V.A. makes grants of $5O to $350 (maximum) to women in any of the 13 countries where there are Altrusa clubs, and spends about $45,000 a year to help women “build new lives.” Two grants were made recently to Indian women.

Apart from training and re-training, grants are given to buy equipment needed for self-employment, such as a sewing machine for a dressmaker who is unable to leave home to w'ork. “Grants may also be awarded for personal rehabilitation to get back to work, such as to buy glasses or dentures,” the president of Altrusa International (Mrs Ethel Boyle) said in Christchurch yesterday. APTITUDE AND NEED

The grants are made to women of all ages, regardless of educational background. But applicants must fulfil “eligibility requirements,” judged by a special committee. Selection is based on aptitude and need.

“And sometimes we run out of money from the fund before the end of a year.” Mrs Boyle said. The money is raised by individual clubs’ voluntary contributions to the fund. Clubs must have faith in applicants’ ability to become employable or self-employed and to become contributing members of their community. “We feel that this is a very meaningful project,” Mrs Boyle said, “Many of the

women we have helped earn a living have been widows, wives of invalids, divorcees and deserted mothers who have to support children, and handicapped women who with training in an occupational skill, can find a productive life.” Grants have helped women advance from waitressing to become institutional housekeepers, from file clerks to medical secretaries, and from baby-sitters to office workers. Mrs Boyle, who is visiting Altrusa clubs in New Zealand. said that the international organisation also had a grants-in-aid project, which provides grants of up to $lOOO for graduate students who would not be able to complete a degree without some financial assistance. STUDENT AWARDS “We have provided awards to students in Asia, Africa, the Middle Fast, and in Latin America to continue studying in their own countries. We feel these grants help promote friendly international relations,” she said. Altrusa was founded in 1917 in the United States, at a time when women were beginning to join the work force in appreciable numbers. It was the oldest women’s classification service organisation in the world, Mrs Boyle said. It had 600 clubs with a total of 17,000 members, in 13 countries. “Classification” means that every member must be an executive member of her profession or business or be selfemployed. They must be invited to join a club. Mrs Boyle’s classification is “Government-State” in the Altrusa Club of Springfield,

Illinois, of which she is a foundation member.

A registered dietitian and home economist, Mrs Boyle is assistant-purchasing agent in the procurement division of her State’s Department of General Services. “We buy equipment and commodities for all State agencies, spending about $BO million a vear on anything required from aircraft to zippers,” she said.

Mrs Boyle started work in 1942 in the Illinois State Department of Public Welfare as a dietitian working in State agencies and in private hospitals. OVERSEAS VISITS

Since her election as international president of Altrusa, she has visited clubs in Britain. She has come to New

Zealand from Australia, and will visit Honolulu on her wav back to the United States.

“I am here to encourage clubs to increase membership so that they can provide more services within the community,” she said, ' Last evening, she attended a tea meeting of the Altrusa Club of Christchurch, and after giving members a talk held a question-and-answer session.

Her tour of Australian and New Zealand clubs has to be a brief one as she is on annual leave from her job. Her husband. Mr R. D. Boyle, who is retired, is travelling with her.

They will go to Timaru today and will later visit Dunedin, Wellington, Auckland. and Wanganui.