MARRIED WOMEN AS TEACHERS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 172, 18 April 1939, Page 4

MARRIED WOMEN AS TEACHERS

Their Right To Work “The plain fact is that teachers should be judged on their fitness as teachers and by no other standard, states an editorial comment in "National Education,” the journal of the New Zealand Educational Institute. “No body with claims to professional status can submit to differentiation among its members on such irrelevant grounds as marriage—and the Educational Institute does make real claims to professional status.” This comment was provoked by the remark of a member of the Taranaki Education Board, who expressed regret at the loss of the power “to give notice to quit to girls who marry.” The board had before it at a subsequent meeting a report to the effect that in Its district there were no fewer than 15 classes of more than 50 pupils, and one of more than 60. The remedy for such large classes, the institute suggested, was the bringing into operation of a new and more generous staffing scale —this suggestion is at present under consideration by the Education Department. A Swedish Report. The special problem of married women’s work is dealt with in a Swedish Government report on “Women ’Workers,” recently published by the International Labour Office. The experts consider that the employment of married women, though in certain aspects a relatively new phenomenon, is not opposed to the social and economic organization of modern social life, but is a necessary factor in it and should therefore not be restricted. On the contrary, the report states society must be adjusted to the new situation that has risen from the more general participation of women in gainful employment outside the home. At the same time, however, public measures should be taken to make it easier for mothers to devote themselves to their children while they are still young. The experts summarize their views on the specific proposals submitted to them as follows: 1. The proposal to prohibit by law married women’s retention of, or search for, gainful employment outside the home must be definitely rejected, and also the Proposal for other restrictions on married women’s right to work. 2. Bonuses, marriage loans, lump sum payments in respect of acquired pension rights, premature pensioning on leaving an employment, and other similar economic measures intended to encourage voluntary resignation on marriage, cannot be regarded as expedient. 3. Married women, and other workers who, for justifiable reasons, wish to have shorter hours of work, should be given facilities for obtaining part-time work, or work as substitutes for persons absent on annual or sick leave; this should be arranged by means of existing public service regulations or, in the case of private employment, of collective agreements. 4. The possibility should be considered of providing married couples with employment, whether public or private, in the same locality, subject to the legitimate interests of other parties. 5. The question of married woman’s right to retain her own surname should be reconsidered at the earliest possible moment. 6. Social institutions to facilitate the care of young children by their mothers should be established and given financial support, but they should be equally available, even if in differeit forms, to mothers going out to work and those working in the home.