GOOD LOOKS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 16 May 1928, Page 7

GOOD LOOKS.

ABE THEY A DRAW-BACK TO BUSINESS WOMEN. .

CONTROVERSY IN LONDON

UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—BY ELECTRI TELEGRAPH—COPYRIGHT.) (UNITED SERVICE.)

LONDON, May 14. Whether a girl can be over-attractive for her job is o the latest controversy. Miss Haslett, organiser for the Women’s Engineering Association speaking at the conference on new r careers for women, protested against an engineering firm refusing a good-looking girl a position/ ciespite the fact that she was admirably qualified for the appointment in the drawing office, - because it was feared ,she would upset the men. Another director expressed the opinion that a girl’s technical qualifications should include the ability to remain unshocked when the foreman said “Damn.” Mis Hastlett argued that engineer girls did not want to- be regarded as curiosities, because they wore trousers and worked at night time. They wanted to work with and not against men. Sir Woodman Burbridge, chairman and managing director of Harrods, Ltd., declares that there was no truth in the statement that good looks were a drawback to a business woman. He preferred good-looking women having “Something above the ears.”. A charming girl had a great advantage in salesmanship. Mr. Gordon Selfridge, junr., says a man who, neglects his work because an attractive girl is in the same office is not much of a business man. An official of the Women Clerks’ Association expressed tfye opinion that if the choice lay between girls otherwise equally equipped an attractive personality always got the post. “We are sometimes asked not to send good-look-ing girls,” he said, “but this is probably due to a wife’s influence.” One Government department thinks over-attractiveness is not advisable.