GIRLS WHO WORK SHOULD GO HOME

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6919, 27 May 1929, Page 11

GIRLS WHO WORK SHOULD GO HOME

VACATING POSTS FOE BOYS.

A suggestion for the relief of unemployment, tentatively advanced by Dr. E. P. Neale before the Auckland Economic Society, was that New Zealand girls should be persuaded to take_ up domestic work, so leaving the positions in business they now occupy open to boys. The meeting was presided over b> Mr W. H. Cocker. The excessive number of women entrenched in positions in the cities made it very difficult for boys leaving school to gain a foothold, said Dr. Nealo. Owing to the war there had been a spectacular increase of women in commercial offices, the majority of them rarely rising above junior positions} indeed tho number had doubled from 1911 to 1921. At the same time there were 4000 more boys relative to the population, looking for work. Although the position was serious, there wero evidences of a corning change. The world tendency toward a lower birth-rate, together with tho exceptionally few births during the war, meant that the number of young people seeking work was becoming smaller and smaller every year, and in addition it was noted that there was now a tendency in the business world to curtail the number of posts open for women. These factors were hopeful for ttho future and would eventually relieve the position automatically, but in the meantime Dr Neale thought matters could be eased considerably if women could be persuaded to confine their activities to domestic work. Dr Neale admitted that his’ suggestion might be difficult of fulfilment, as there was a growing disliko among vc-ung women for household duties. Whereas 12,000 women were shown in the 1911 census to be assisting in the home, the number so classed in 1920 was only 2000. Nevertheless, the present situation could bo almost equally eased by seeking extra outlets for women in gainful employment as by seeking extra outlets for lads. Er. Neale’s address covered a number of other aspects of the unemployment problem, which he analysed from a strictly economical standpoint.