WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 16, 16 December 1937, Page 11

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

EQUALITY CHAMPIONED. PLACE IN ADMINISTRATION. Outspokenly plain in his approach to the subject. Dr. A. G. Butchers, head of the Government correspondence schools, gave an address of a thoughtprovoking nature at the breaking-up ceremony of the Palmerston North Technical School, last evening, when he touched upon social problems from an entirely new angle, vigorously championed the rights of women to equality in all spheres of life, and advanced some striking suggestions by which this might be carried into effect. “We have come fo realise that the best education for the future of boys and girls,” stated Dr. Butchers, “is that they should live at school the kind of life they should subsequently do.” Facilities were being found increasingly, he added, for social, physical and personal education.

Commenting upon the principle and practice of co-education in the schools, Dr. Butchers stated that hoys and girls met under these conditions on common ground, as equals and in competi+ion with each other. Considering the implication of this jiractice, some schools, though they were attended by boys and girls, were not co-educational in practice, which was, however, a real thing at this centre. Why should co-education not be carried forward into the life that followed school? He felt that many of tlie social ills had their source in the fact that men failed to realise that women were their equals in the general sphere of life, and were reluctant to admit them as such.

“SO LONG SUBAIITTED.”

“I cannot understand,”’ continued Dr. Butchers, “why. when we in this country were actually one of the first to give the franchise to women, they have so long submitted to this state of affairs. He added that in Victoria the chief inspector of secondary schools tvas a woman. Women held high execu five positions in all parts of the world with efficiency. New Zealand should have not only women police, women school inspectors and women secondary school principals, but women jurors, women judges, women members of Parliament, and women Ministers of the Cabinet. It seemed to be but the logical development of what democracy was practising in the schools. An immediate objection raised to this, commented Dr. Butchers, was that men had to receive higher salaries than women in order to support their wives and children. It might be that the state of social affairs was responsible for wives having to be kept by their husbands, but the ideal was a better wages system, _ with equal pay for equal work on an individual work basis. Tlie assumption being used by the Arbitration Court was that a man of marriageable age should receive enough income to support a wife and three children. Only in a small number of cases did this work out in practice. Many of these men were unmarried and some who were married bad no children, or less than three, for which they were receiving more than enough, while others had five children, and were receiving insufficient.

INCOAIE FOR AIOTHERS. That was why he suggested that a more equitable scheme would he on the lines indicated, said Dr. Butchers. The • surplus wages bill should not be retained by the employers or organisations,’ but paid into a national provident fund, so that when a woman resigned her vocation to marry she would receive an independent income for her service as a wife and a mother, a payment to l>e made for each child adequate to enable it to he brought up properly. People could then marry young and have a family—which was the aspiration of every man and woman —without having to face economic difficulties.

Dr. Butchers said lie believed it would be much better if the system of self-discipline, self-government and equality of the sexes as practised in some schools could be applied to the Government of the country, and that. Parliament should consist of an equal number of men and women.. There were wavs of achieving that objective. Women 'had the right at present to contest seats, hut there were the natural lag of the old-time prejudice and the party system operating again, st them. "Instead of 80 male members, Dr. Butchers suggested that the constituencies be reduced to 40, with a man and a woman representative for each, the voting in each case to be exercised by both sexes. It seemed such a simple and feasible plan that he was surprised it had not been advanced before, for the reason that the women outnumbered the men and, by pooling their strength, could secure proper representation of their sex. He would even go further and say that half the members of Cabinet should be women. He thought that the present Alinisters would admit that in some cases tlieir wives could give just as good service. Suitable portfolios for women to hold would be those of health, justice, education and the like. He was not sure that it would not he a good thing to have a woman Alinister of Finance.

"“STRANGE AND NEW.” % “Some of these things may seem strange and new to you,” continued Dr. Butchers, “but a great many things like that might be lying ahead. We live fn extraordinary times. Before the Great War the young people felt that they were living in halcyon days. There were great developments and upsets in social problems, but since the War there has been a rude awakening to the fact that the old ideas have passed away. Boys and girls of the present will be electors and voters in so few years, Hieing all sorts of ‘isms’ and ‘ocracies.’ It is more important to hold on to a democratic government, because extremists of both the Right and the Left are a great danger, and would resort to terrorism or use force to attain their objectives.

( FREEDOM OF ACTION. “We must preserve our fredom of discussion, freedom of debate, the freedom of the Press, the freedom of the air and, above all, the freedom of the ballot box. The farcical elections under Communism or Fascism have no place in our conception of British liberty. We see things that in a large measure are shot though with hypocrisy, such as the building of large navies for peace and the dragooning of people in the name of liberty.” Dr. Butchers urged the boys and girls in front of him to face up to the problem of personal adjustment to their social responsibilities, and to take an interest not only in the wider affairs of the country, but of the world itself. He pointed out that our population was diminishing and, if it continued at the present rate, it was computed on accurate statistics that by 1976— less than 40 years hence—the population of Great Britain would be reduced to 22,000,000. Iha

terrible thing to contemplate, and a similar movement was going on in Australia and New Zealand. It had not yet manifested itself to the same extent in Japan, India, and other Asiatic countries. Unless we realised this serious position it would not he "New*? Zealand’s children who would be occupying the new schools and buildings. If we could not populate this country we could not expect to hold it against those countries with increasing populations.