Women’s role in N.Z. industry changing

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32885, 7 April 1972, Page 5

Women’s role in N.Z. industry changing

Industry considers women as transient workers and not worth training in depth, according to Dr Mary D. Earle, of the Massey University food technology department. “The whole community should look at the place of women in industry. Very often women are just regarded as a source of cheap labour," said Dr Earle, in a paper presented to the National Study Conference on Technician Training held last year. The conference was sponsored by the Massey University Department of university extension, and the Vocational Training Council. Women are not really crowding out trade courses, according to Dr Earle. The principal employer of women is still the clothing industry, employing 20 per cent of the women in industry (70,277 in October, 1970). The knitting industry employs 6 per cent, engineer-; ing 6.5 per cent, footwear 1 4 per cent, electrical manufacture 4 per cent and vehicle and aircraft repair 4 per cent. MEAT PROCESSING The largest group in the food industry is in meat processing 2 per cent, followed by cake and pastry making 1.7 per cent, fruit and vegetable industry IS per cent and sugar confectionery IS per cent Women are also very widely distributed in other industries. . They are principally skilled or semi-skilled workers who have been trained in the factory. Very few appear to have formal trade certificates or diplomas. Of the women attending trade classes in 1968 and 1969 the greatest number were in hairdressing. In parttime professional and technical classes there was a greater number of women in 1969. Gradually, however, women are being absorbed into fields other than their traditional industrial positions—for example the freezing industry, and in super-. visory and technical posi- 1 tions. There is a very real need, 1 Dr Earle argues, for industrial management and the I community to encourage 1 women to take courses to help them in their jobs. 1 Women are at present transient workers. In the ; textile industry they have an-

nual terminations of 41 pet cent compared to 29 per cent for the men. However, there is now in industry a growing attitude that if one can find a middleaged married woman with a grown-up family, she will be one of the most stable workers. One has to acknowledge that the young girl will only give four to five years service before she leaves to have children, but surely she at least deserves to have six months training for this, says Dr Earle. She maintains it is worthwhile also to train women for when they return to work at 35 or 40 years of age. She advocates teaching of a trade

or a skilled occupation, and encouragement to take adult apprenticeships and some type of trade training. Some of these women, and also some of the women who have remained in industry throughout their adult life, should take management training, she argues. There is a real waste of intelligent management material in industry because rarely are women considered suitable for these courses, ot positions. TRAINING All girls employed as technicians should be encouraged to train and attend available classes. They should be actively encouraged to take the physical sciences and engineering where there is a real need for many more technicians. If women can be employed in such large numbers in the electrical and light engineering companies, there is al

I need for women to be trained as technicians in these fields, she says. Until the present day the I place of women in industry has been very lowly. Industry now realises that women are suitable for many technical and supervisory positions, but there are very few women training themselves for these positions. The technician grade and the tradesman grade, where training is often well organised for men, should be actively encouraged as a possible future for girls leaving school. They should be shown the advantages of having a recognised skill and training which they can use at any time in their lives to procure a congenial and well-paid job. Surely some women are capable of more than sticking labels on cans or picking out rotten peaches on a sortling belt, Dr Earle says.