THE ALTAR OF ECONOMY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 92, 20 April 1931, Page 6

THE ALTAR OF ECONOMY

WOMEN—MARRIED AND SINGLE

(To the Editor.) Sir, —It makes me wonder how many of your correspondents have ever taken the trouble of thinking when I read some' of the letters on education, and those particularly concerning married women teachers. I am not one myself, and cannot be accused of i prejudice in their/favour, so I hope I may be allowed to point out a few points that seem to have been overlooked by your correspondents. Aa usual, the teacher, the married woman teacher especially, is to be sacrificed upon the, altar of economy. She is made the scapegoat of her profession, which is, in its turn, the scapegoat of all other professions. Why choose the teaching profession only for this purpose? If a married woman teacher is to be refused the opportunity of earning her independence in the way she desires, it is only fair that all professions, all work other than home-making, must be barred to the married woman unless she can show utter destitution. The married charwoman, the married woman greengrocer, whose husband holds a job also, the married woman doctor, etc., must be, abolished, and we must go back to the 'dark ; ages when women were alive merely for the xbencnt of men. Surely we have reached a niorc enlightened age when woman is considered not only as the complement of man, the creator of the race, but as a human being also, even if she is married; a human being who can find in a career something as absorbing and satisfying as marriage. With the labour-saving appliances and the smaller families of our modern days, many married women must find only 'a small percentage of their available energy used up. The rest is used up in the light activities for which women are noted, visiting, entertaining, shopping, playing the less strenuous games, etc. For these pastimes women are very often adversely criticised. Yet, when here and there we find a married woman doing a really useful and serious job, we find her criticised alsol It is said that she; is taking the job of those unemployed just out of college. These need not be unemployed, for with the over-crowded classes of the New Zealand schools all - and more besides could be used up in the primary schools. In fact, every one is urgently needed if the present generation of children is not to be victimised for all time by this spate of economising. New Zealand's children arc physically and mentally fine specimens deserving of the best education possible, and a nation which is so short-sighted as to make its children'one of the chief fields o£ economy cannot be too severely condemned. * Whilst nearly every other country is rapidly advancing in educational outlook, in spite of- adverse circumstances, this country seeks retrenchment. What hope will the citizens of the future have competing in world markets agaiusfc more highly educated peoples? The "marriedwoman argument" is" a red herring drawn across the main track. To harp upon this one aspect of the vast field of education is ,to. show the ignorance in which the majority of people exist in regard to the most important subject of the modern state, the education of the young. Besides, why should the woman worker always be the victim of economy? Why should the choice of marriage or career be always cast upon the woman? And it has come to that, for the interest of some careers to certain women, as yet few, but ever increasing in numbers, is as vital as marriage. It is as unfair to ask a woman to choose between these as it would be to ask a map to give up his career for" the sake of his wife and her career. Beugus'e a certain attitude .is traditional in the past is no reason why it should be div %-A out to coerce women into ielf-sacrihcing attitudes in the present.—l am, etc., LOUISE BELL.