Boost for women in schools

Press, 11 October 1979, Page 6

Boost for women in schools

Positive discrimination is; the term Mrs Mary Garlick; applies to her work in sort-j ing out the boys from the! girls. She was appointed at the' beginning of the year as the; (first education officer fori I women with the Education; Department. At present she is pursu-j ing a course of “extra} (special action,” which en- ’ tails holding courses in man-' agement for women. The creation of her posi-i jtion is the result of the con-; (ference on education and; :equality of sexes, held in; 1975. At that conference an (interim committee on women! • and education was set up and ;it pushed for the appointment of a full-time co-ordin-ating officer. The nosition was first ad-’ vertised in 1977 and then was; upgraded and advertised again in 1978. Mrs Garlick' was chosen from 50 applic-.

; ants. She took up the posi-i . tion, with the same grading' ‘ as a school inspector, at the} ’ beginning of this year. : “ Mrs Garlick has been a secondary school teacher for ' seven years, mainly in Ham-} ■ ilton. and was a founding! • member of the local Women's; (Electoral Lobby branch there. She has been the chair-' .woman of the Hamilton i branch of the Post-Primary; •preachers' Association for the' • last two years. She teaches; mainly English and does' • some career guidance work; ■ as well. I: She sees her new role as’ every much a co-ordinating i one because she covers the ('concerns of women from preli school to tertiary level. She ■ also heads the old interim - committee, now the official 16-member Committee on .(Women and Education, which >; advises the Minister of Education (Mr Wellington). Mrs Garlick was in Christ--.church, yesterdav to intro-

* "I 1 I duce herself to pre-school ad-, i visers and to staff members i at the Christchurch Techni- • cal Institute, the Teachers’ College, and Hagley High ■ School. ® ■i Her job involves travelling

[the country in response to 1 .requests from groups to run! ( 'courses on subjects such as: ( I “stereotyping in the class- 1 .room.” and “the position of ’I j women in education.” Mrs Garlick savs she is ' [worried because 70 per cent/ lof primary-school teachers/ [are female, and fewer than I ( ■4 per cent of them ever reach i * -principal level. ;i More than 70 per cent ofT 'students at teachers’ colleges are female and 70 per f cent of the teaching staff t ! there are male. I “That is what scares me't 'the most,” said Mrs Garlick.!< “There are great numbers of ; iwomen flooding in at the bot-J itom of the system and dom-'l (mating early-chiidhood I 'classes but the decision-mak-’l -,ing positions are held by! ; men.” [I ; Mrs Garlick said she hopes/ . through her work to encour-jj age women to aspire to posi-’i t tions of responsibility. !!