ELECTRICAL WORK

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 5, 7 January 1928, Page 10

ELECTRICAL WORK

THE DOMESTIC ASPECT In October last a big electrical firm appointed a woman as head of its publicity department. Misa C. Haslett, director of the Electrical Association for Women, gave this and many other examples of the scope offered to women by the electrical industry when she lectured recently to members of the Students' Careers Association, says i the London "Daily Telegraph." This ' particular appointment is all the more interesting because of the firm's reason for making it. The lady in question it is stated, had already trained two previous publicity managers, and it was time she held tho office herself. A picture of employers demanding in an irritated tone: "Why aren't there more women educated in this work to help usf was drawn by Miss Haslett. No one, she declared, had ever thought of training women for the industry, but in the future they would bo able to produce women with a recognised training in domestic science and electrical engineering. A first practical attempt was being made at the Chelsea Polytechnic with the co-operation

of tho Headmistresses' Employment Committee at the Ministry of Labour. A course iv electrical housecraft was given, and a similar course was shortly to be introduced at the Battersea Polytechnic. Miss Haslett has had hundreds of letters asking when such courses arc to be started in the provinces. In America women arc being paid largo salaries as advisers in household economics to electrical undertakings. "1 believe tho time has arrived when the big British corporations will employ women officers to advise them how to develop this work on behalf of tho home," said Miss llaslett. "Good salaries will- bo paid because Ihc need is so great. Every woman will bo an experiment with ■ her particular corporation, and it will bo up to her to prove that she is worth while to the lirni. Manufacturers of electric bulbs,, cookers, and so forth will stand more and more in need of women to advise them in the presentation and sale of their apparatus to the public." Manufacturers of electrical apparatus quito frequently ask Miss Haslett if she can find women of brains and intelligence who would be of use to them. A few girls are already apprenticed to electrical engineering concerns with women at their head. Iv the last eighteen months Miss Partridge, the woman who brought electricity to villages in Devonshire, has articled six girls, ana they will undergo a three-years' training. "It is an extremely happy life for a girl who wants an adventure rather than to live like a lady in a drawing-room," said Miss Haslett. "They will train as electrical engineers."