SEX EQUALITY

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 70, 16 December 1937, Page 8

SEX EQUALITY

Strongly Advocated By Dr. Butchers CO-EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM COMMENDED A Dominion Special Service. Palmerston North, December 15. Greater equality for women, to include even women judges, women members of Parliament and women Cabinet Ministers, was forcefully advocated by Dr. A. G. Butchers, head of the Education Department’s Correspondence School, when speaking at the break-ing-up ceremony of the Palmerston North Technical School to-night. Dr. Butchers also suggested the rearrangement of the wages system based purely on equal payment to the individual for work done. Such a system, he contended, would enable men and women to marry young, and would encourage them to have families. Dr. Butchers began by commending the co-educational system, provided it were carried out properly. If boys and girls could go into schools and achieve the principle of equality and of equal government and equal responsibility, he said he wanted to ask if there was any reason why that equality could not be carried forward into the life that followed school. “I feel that many of the ills, social and economic, that we face to-day are due to the fact that we men have not yet realised that women are really our equals and that they ought to be admitted to an equal share in affairs and an equal position in the life of the community,” said Dr. Butchers. “I cannot understand why the women of the country, which was one of the first to obtain the women’s franchise, have so long submitted to this state of affairs. I see no reason why we should not have not only women police, but women principals of schools, women serving on juries, women judges, women members of Parliament, and woman Cabinet Ministers. It seems to be the logical development, of what is being administered as discipline within your school.” Women’s Equality.

On women’s equality, it might be said, went on Dr. Butchers, that men were paid higher salaries, to support a wife and children. It might be that that social state of affairs which resulted in, as the marriage ceremony put it, the woman being kept by her husband, was far from ideal and that it would be better if we had a wages system based upon equality of work, upon payment purely and simply to the individual for work done. At the present time the assumption used by the Court of Arbitration was that the wage to be paid to a full-grown man must be based on the idea that the man had a wife and children. That was true only in a small number of cases. There were many men of marriageable age who had no wife, while others had a wife'and four, five or six children. Obviously what was sufficient for men with a wife and three children was too much for a man with no wife.

On the basis of equal payment to men and women for work done by the individual, said Dr. Butchers," distribution would be fairer and any surplus on the present wages bill would not be pocketed by the employers but would be estimated and paid into the National Provident Fund. Out of that fund when the girl resigned her position to marry she would receive an independent income in return for services rendered to the community as a wife and mother and as each child came into the family adequate finance would be available for that child to be brought up properly. The system would enable people to marry young and would encourage those who wanted to have families to have them because economic difficulties would be removed. Sharing of Government.

“I believe the community would be off in every way if that system of self-discipline and government in schools equally shared by both sexes could be applied to the Government of the country so that Parliament would consist of equal number of men and women,” said Dr. Butchers. “It seems to me there is a very simple way to achieve that object at the present time. If women stood for Parliament they would stand against men and naturally the old prejudice would operate _to prevent them gaining success. I think that could be overcome. Instead of having eighty constituencies returning one member we could have 40 constituencies returning two members, one a man and the other a woman. What I suggest is that there should be two voting lists, the man’s name on the one and the woman’s on the other, and all electors would vote on both lists. The man and woman would be representative of the whole electorate. “It seems very simple and feasible, and I wonder it has not occurred to someone and been put into operation before. Women outnumber men and are in the position if they assert their strength to ensure proper representation of their strength in Parliament."