UNIVERSITY GIRLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20538, 12 April 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

UNIVERSITY GIRLS.

SUCCESS IN BUSINESS

MISS LAURA BOWEN'S RISE

A Glasgow University student _ who signed himself " A Broken Man" declared the other day that women undergraduates had no higher ambition than to become schoolmistresses. He obviously had not heard of Miss Laura Bowen and her 20 girl companions who are making commercial history.

Three years ago Miss Bowen took a B.Sc. degree in economics at London University. Without any previous commercial training she took a position at £3 a week at Peter Jones, Ltd., a London drapery and furnishing store, where she has now been made general manager.

A novel scheme is being supervised by Miss BWen to prove that universitytrained women have a definite value in modern commerce. She is a tall, dark girl with a delightful smile and radiates efficiency. When she was appointed general manager, white-haired shopwalkers raised their eyebrows. They have lowered them since, and the whole staff have the greatest admiration for her tact and competence. " We have 20 university women here training under what we call a learners scheme,' " Miss Bowen explained in giving details of the scheme. . " They are paid, to begin with, more than they are worth, but as their economic value increases with experience they repay the firm. '"For instance/an untrained'girl may not be worth more than £1 a week. e pay her £3 a week until her value has increased to £4 a. week, when she starts paying off her debt to the firm. These girls are doing amazingly well. Some of them are already buyers, others are secretaries and saleswomen. Asked whether her university training had helped her to attain her position, Mi6S Bowen declared with a . modest smile, " You must judge that for yourself.''