VOCATIONS FOR GIRLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17574, 13 September 1920, Page 6

VOCATIONS FOR GIRLS.

Status of home service.

CHARGE OP NEGLIGENCE.

ADEQUATE TRAINING NEEDED.

Some pertinent remarks upon the training , and education of girls, >to fit them for the responsibilities of womanhood in their home and household lives, were made at the Technical Schools Conference in. Wellington by Mrs. F. E. Baume.one of the Auckland delegates. ;_ Referring to the administration of technical schools. Mrs. Baume said thai frequent references had been made to the education of boys, but not to that of girls. Half the children of school age were girls, who were thus being ignored. ; The educational authorities bad not yet touched the fringe of vocational training for girls. Their home-making education was a farce. The subject was the most difficult of the present time. Something was being done to train girls commercially, but not for th!* great profession of home-making, which was the real business life of every true womanShe regarded the problem from two viewpoints: vocational training for wageearning and vocational training for homemaking. The girl who was going in ] for industrial life must have training not only in her particular trade, but also in the art of home-making. She must learn how to meet the increased cost of living; how to keep house economically; to be conversant with the chemistry of food; and know how to provide children with adequate nourishment. The State was neglecting its responsibility to the girl, and there was no effort to teach her the duties of social life. Great assistance could be afforded by the appointment of women to the boards of managers. The State should undertake the training of the girl for the management of the home, to become a home assistant or a domestic worker; it should endeavour to make the parent realise the dignity of home assistance as a calling. It should bo regarded as quite as dignified and responsible as the profession of a nurse. The notion of domestic service, an odious word, should be eliminated, and the status of the occupation raised by the establishment of a training college for domestic workers and home assistants.

Help in the home was the crying need of the day, and they could never get it until they raised the status of the workers in the home to that of an honourable vocation. The speaker suggested it was highly necessary that women with a grip of women's work should have a place in the administration of technical education. Child welfare should he the main object of education in the Dominion, and it Smust go hack' to the home, with the physical welfare of the mother. Mr. W. S. La Trobe, Director of Technical Education, agreed that some special provision should be made to ensure that at least one woman should sit on the Board of each college The following resolution was passed :— " That in the larger centres the technical school board of managers should consist off not more than 15 members, elected as far as possible on the following basis — Three members, representing education boards; three, local bodies; three, parents of day school pupils, one of whom, at least, must be a woman; three representing the employers, and three the emj ployees."