Domestic Work on Business Basis

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22670, 6 March 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

Domestic Work on Business Basis

Englishwomen's Solution "ENGLISHWOMEN are tackling the vexed domestic service problem says an overseas correspondent. As in New Zealand hundreds of homes are unable to obtain domestic workers, although there are many unemployed women. Several women's organisations have arranged conferences to discuss the problem, and domestic service on the shift system has been suggested as a solution. Mrs. W. H. Thompson, vice-presi-dent of tho Harrogate branch of tho British National Council of Women, who is supporting the suggestion, points out that domestic service is the one profession that his not moved with, the times, and that employers still try to keep it on a pre-war footing. " Girls are no longer content to spend nearly every evening indoors. They want regular hours, fixed wages and more freedom. And why shouldn t they?" she said. " Domestic workers should be able to live at a hostel and go out to houses or flats for a few hours a day as required. They could be responsible to the head of the hostel instead of to an individual mistress , " This would solve tho young man problem. Girls should be able to meet their sweethearts under the same conditions as any other working girls.