WOMEN TEACHERS’ PAY

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 25 July 1935, Page 5

WOMEN TEACHERS’ PAY

Women’s Institute Urges Rate be Same as for Men MARRIED PERSONS ONLY PROPOSITION AT CONFERENCE (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, July 25. In cases where women teachera are the main support, of families they should receive the same salaries as men teachers in all grades. This proposition was supported by the Dominion Conference of the Women’s Institute to-day after a lively discussion.

Mrs F. Newman (Nelson) said some widows had been reinstated as teachers, and though they had to educate and rear families their salaries had been reduced by as much as £3Q yearly- ... i A Maori delegate said she spoke uritli feeling on the question. Her husband, as a teacher at a native school, received £22 10s a year for his services. When he died she had to accept £l3 7s for the same work, though she was supporting two children. She had an assistant who received no salary. A delegate, who said she was the mother of a large family, contended that men should receive the larger salaries.

The wife of a teacher said women teachers were well placed—where there were only girls to teach, but they could not control boys. “We have to clear up the moral mess that is left behind by women headmistresses of mixed schools/’ she declared. (Cries of no.) An amendment to delete the words “Where women are the main support of families,” was rejected, Mrs Newman saying that the aim was to endeavour to secure more salary for women with dependents. In the case of single people it was felt that men should receive more pay than women, as men were saving for the future.