THE DEMAND OF THE WOMEN. Equal Pay for Equal Work.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 98, 17 May 1902, Page 8

THE DEMAND OF THE WOMEN. Equal Pay for Equal Work.

ANCIENT custom and mean einployeis b^ c ruled that a woman who is capable of working is an animal especially de-used by a bountiful Pro\ idence to help man to fortune for halt wages. The National Council of Women which has been sitting in Napier lately is afflicted with a good many chimeric notions, and it threshes a laige quantity of chaff for a few good grains of corn. One of the Council's grains which deserves to be fruitful is the following resolution .— " That this Council is of opinion that m all classes where men and women are engaged in the same work, either in the employ of the Government or ot private individuals, equal wages should be paid for equal work." * * * The resolution is worthy of a special Act in the statutes of New Zealand. The educated ghl who is putting in time between school-end and matrimony in working a typewriter or making 150 shorthand scratches per minute for an employer, who would pay double for the work if the girl hadn't come to the rescue, is a real boon to mean employers. Why should she be underpaid merely because of her sex ? * • • A " lord ot creation " Avould feel deeply injured if he were asked to work a pen at express speed S hours a day for £1 a week or less. He couldn't pay board bill and tram fares with it. Neither could the girl who gets the billet. Her education costs the same, and in hundreds of cases she works just as efficiently, and it is time in these days of enlightenment and supposed sex equality that she raised her voice against the unfairne-s of tbe treatment meted out to her. We have recognised the mental equality of woman by admitting her into various branches of commerce and industry, and we swell our manly chests and believe ouiselves to be patterns for the rest of the world to copy. Our supposed broadcloth pattern turns out to be a pretty poor sample of shoddy on examination. * * * If we ha\e a girl and a boy, and both are required to earn their living, we may put them both into the same branch of the Government service, or into a private office. The girl may be far more capable than the boy, and may e\en do better. Is she to get equal wages with that boy ? Certainly not! Why? Oh, because she's a girl. That's a good, sound, honest reason, isn't it ? Masterful man, in the good old style inherited from his ancestors, takes advantage of the fact that everybody has always done as he does. * * • Of what importance is the advancement in life of a mere girl to the onward rush of a gold-hunting lord of creation? The modern girl engaged m business is frequently a better article than the modern man. As a rule she hasn't an early morning thirst, and a column of figures don't do fantastic handsprings around the ledger and make hash of the quarterly balance, as they frequently do for her brother. If she wanted to "go in" for the delights of a man's existence sfie would have to borrow pretty heavily. An a^erage girl's salary wouldn't run to "sprees" of much magnitude. * • • Does the humiliating aspect of the situation from a girl's standpoint ever strike anyone ? The girl who does equal work with a man is still forced to accept his charity. Johnny, aged 20, engrosses for Wigg, the lawyer. So does his sister, the only difference being that the girl is nimbler at the game. Johnny pays his board at home or elsewhere like a man and buys his own clothes. Jane doesn't. Her heavier work doesn't produce enough. She has to appeal to Pa's

chanty, and most people think it's right and proper that she should occupy this position of civilised selfdom. » • * The alleged equal rights of women with men really mean that they are equally entitled to work as hard as they can be made tor as little wages as can be paid. If the Women's Council would stop turning out bushels of resolutions and hammer away at the subject of equd pay for equal work until some notice Mas taken of the question they certainly would be entitled to the gratitude ot women workers in having championed so just a cause.