Pace-makers moving into ‘man’s world’

Press, 19 August 1982, Page 21

Pace-makers moving into ‘man’s world’

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JACQUELINE STEINCAMP

Eight Christchurch women appear in the first batch of vocational guidance pamphlets about women in nontraditional jobs. They include a cabinet maker, cake baker, coach painter, fitter and turner, footwear pattern cutter, horticulturalist, painter and paperhanger, photoengraver, bookbinder, typographer, and hosiery mechanic. Women are also shown acting as an inspector of dangerous goods and explosives, a post office technician, and an air traffic control officer.

Under the title, “Personal Viewpoints,” the leaflets are designed to encourage schoolgirls to broaden their horizons beyond traditional “woman’s work.”

The Vocational Training Council, which advises the Government on training needs, recently adopted the policy of “Positive Action Towards Equal Opportunity.” It has provided financial backing for a large print run, and distribution of the leaflets to all secondary schools and to the Department of Labour, The leaflet series was launched in Christchurch at a Society for Research on Women meeting on Wednesday evening. Four of the

women featured in the pamphlets talked about their jobs. The principal speaker was Dorothy Stafford, chairwoman of the Women’s Advisory Committee of the Vocational Training Council. Mrs Stafford, who is deputy-principal of the Hamilton Polytechnic, will talk about the changing job market and the need for girls to have wider career options. Mrs Stafford says she is proud of the courage shown by the women whose stories are told in the pamphlets. She is very grateful for the work that S.R.O.W. has done to enable their stories to be' told.

“These magnificent pamphlets will be flooding into our secondary schools. Their great value is that they do not say to a fourth form girl, ‘This is what you should do.’ They say, ‘This is what I am doing, and this is what it is like,’ ” she said.

“They will provide the kind of encouragement needed by young women at school, and by their parents, to follow the examples of the women depicted in the case studies. The pamphlets should help them plan their

school subjects with the widest possible career choice in mind, and to refuse to be inhibited by outdated and often sexist notions of the kind of work which is suitable for women.”

The. format for the pamphletsis the sort of interview that is found in a popular magazine. How the woman got her job, her daily routine, the tools she uses, her training and her relationship with her workmates are told in her own words.

Almost all the girls interviewed felt that their work was not as physically or as mentally demanding as it appeared. Several found aspects of their work physically very difficult (moving colour television sets or big bags of flour), but only one felt she was really not big and strong enough to cope fully with the demands of the job. The leaflet series was originally devised by the Christchurch branch of the Society for Research on Women. In 1979 the branch decided on a project to help break down the ingrained prejudice against women doing what is regarded as “men’s work.”

A group was set up to find women in non-traditional jobs, and interview them.

The aim was further publicity, and the provision of informational material to schools. The initial reserachers were Ros Burden (then S.R.O.W president), Alison Kuiper, Erica Maginnes, Margaret Lane, Marie Meyer, and Jan Patterson. Rosemary Novitz, a lecturer in sociology at the University of Canterbury, was appointed the projects officer. The group designed a questionnaire, tested it, interviewed the women, and wrote up the results. S.R.O.W. interviewed 75 women throughout New Zealand. The thirty Christchurch leaflets were written by Diane Candy and Margaret Flanagan both of whom have been involved in vocational guidance counselling.

Twelve leaflets have been produced so far from the thirty-five transcripts already written. “In choosing which interviews to write up as pamphlets, priority was given to occupations at the non-pro-fessional level. Generally, we favoured skilled and semiskilled manual and technical jobs,” explained Rosemary Novitz.