WOMEN IN MEN’S JOBS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 264, 3 August 1929, Page 13

WOMEN IN MEN’S JOBS

Sir, —In answe r to Mr. Anderson’s recent letter appearing in your paper, I wish to take up the cudgels on behalf of our women in men’s jobs. To deal with his statements one at a time, I will start with the principle of the Labour Party, “One man one job.” It sounds very nice, but the Labour leaders do not adhere to it, so why should you or I? Mr. Anderson is right concerning extra work in the evening, but some men have to do this to make ends meet. The next item, man and wife going to work. Plenty of young people get married these' days with next to nothing in their pockets. Can one blame them for working together for the first two or three years, as it is the only chance they have of getting a little home together, and in some cases a woman has to do work to help keep the house going? Our friend suggests cutting the girls out of the offices altogether, but has not a woman an equal right to earn a living in any walk of life which she chooses as long as she can do the job and do it well? Some of our girls are just as good in the office as men, and a lot are better than some men. Mr. Anderson suggests that the office jobs rightly belong to the man, but why has the man a special right to the office? After all, it is only a girl’s job. Girls have proved themselves better and cheaper at office jobs, so they get them. Surely a man's job should be a little more manual than a job that ean be held down by a girl. I am afraid Mr. Anderson will have to look elsewhere for the cause of unemployment.—l am, etc.. BATCHELOR. Wellington, August 1.