WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 799, 23 April 1910, Page 11

WOMEN IN BUSINESS

OPINIONS OF EMPLOYERS. Id connection with the cabled news that an American railway company has dispensed with its female • employees because they do 30 per cent, less work, and have less initiative, than men, a reporter has been, making some inquiries in Christchurch, and has ascertained in some quarters that, although the employment, of women had not attained locally the dimensions it had in Amorica, the same conclusions might be come to in the case of Women, employees in . the more responsible branches of industry, however desirable they might be in the lower grades.

Speaking, of the (demand amongst commercialj-foncems toi.'.'boy- and girl employees, Mr. C. H. Gilby said that unquestionably the boys and young •men were in ; much greater request, although in the lower grades of office employment, girls were smarter; A girl of 17''leaving , a commercial school was better than a boy of, say, 15, as a shorthand-typist. "As a matter of solid fact," said Mr. Gilby, "dealing with local conditions, ■ you will find, here and there, a woman as good .as any man, and in many eases better, but it is only here and; there. /Women cannot rise to the higher arid "moro responsible positions because they lack initiative, and camiot bear the same responsibility as a man. A man goes into an office, resolved"to make it his life's work, but, with a woman, it is only to fill a gap of a couple of years until she marries.""--' ■•'..'■■

Mr, G, H. AVliitcombo said>tbat he first became " personally ■ ..acquainted with the employment of women ia skilled work ' during- a visit to the . United States 22 years before. When he returned to Chxistehurch, he put into, practice what, he had seen in America, and Ha was, tho first office to engage a , woman typist. Subsequently women and girls were largely employed throughout New Zealand, as hand-type compositors, -though they had since been deprived of such work by the introduction «jf mechanical setting machines. He had found that wonien could not attain tho same speed at this work , as men, but, on the other hand, they became skilled operators in a much shorter time. The ordinary apprentice took about three years to attain efficiency, bui woman developed into clever compositors in 12 or 18 months. Women wer'a better adapted for positions ■ as. typists than men were, for, 'although , they /could not work at. such';high; speed jtnd,' ,perhaps did: not' make such goo<l : 'typists v they would keep at the .woik more; consistently than men, employed on the samo class of work. In America clerical staffs were working a. great deal at night, , and although the American women wore almost as independent as the men, there were objections to thejr employment .at.night, work, and for this reason women "telegraph -Idfle-rators and typists were being very'generally replaced by men! . Men were preferred for the work, because their ppwors of endurance were 1 greater, and that was. an. important consideration ,in the United States, where everything was hustled. '.■■•■■

A professional man who has employed Wo or three girls or ■ young women jn his office during the past seven or eight years, when asked what ho thought of women as clerks, said without any hesitation' that he considered them in 'many respects better •than inen. 'He-paid'the girls.tho same salaries'-as 'lots' of' nien." claiming ;'simi--lar''Qualifications"',would bo glad to accept, but as "., typists he found the girls much better than men, and, as bookkeepers, ■ quite as good up , ' to a certain point. They had not,', as a rule,- the samo knowledge of tte world,, and could not so readily adapt themselves to unexpected: circumstances, but, with'; this limitation, which in some respects might be an advantage, he wonld prefer the woman clerk "every time." It went without saying that she was steadier and more conscientious than the man clerk, and his experience' had satisfied him • that she was often .quite as capable and always more diligent. ' . .