DOMESTIC SERVICE

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 June 1937, Page 5

DOMESTIC SERVICE

WOMEN’S NEW PROPOSALS [per PRESS ASSOCIATION.] CHRISTCHURCH, June 10. So acute has shortage of domestics become, that women’s organisations in Christchurch have organised a special committee to tackle the problem. This committee, known as the Household Service Campaign Committee, proposed the training of a national corps of domestic workers, to be paid and hired out by the Government. It plans also a campaign among employers to change the attitude towards domestic workers. Public meetings will be called, and the scheme will be laid before \the Government.

The opinion' is widely held among women’s organisations that the status of the domestic workers must be raised considerably if a good supply of efficient workers is to be maintained. They blame many employers for adopting a wrong attitude towards the girls and women working in the home, and an important part of the campaign will be the educating of employers and of intending employers in the art of employment. An attempt will be made to alter the public attitude towards domestic workers. The Household Service Campaign Committee is representative of leading 'women’s organisations. Its chairman is Mrs. Ross MacDonald (Annat), President of the Christchurch Home Service Association, which has, for the last eight years, been closely associated with the problem of employment for women. The secretary of the committee and organiser of the campaign, is Miss C. E. Robinson. Vocational Guidance Officer. Members of the Publicity Campaign Committee are Miss M. G. Havelaar. Mrs. L. C. L. Averill, Mrs. Leicester Webb and Dr. A. B. O'Brien.

It was Dr. O’Brien's address to the annual meeting of the Home Service Association which set fhe campaign under way,