THE ODD WOMEN

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8681, 14 March 1914, Page 9

THE ODD WOMEN

training to fit them foe COLONIAL CAREERS.

A State training scheme to fit girls for colonial careens is advocated by a writer (G. E. Mappin) in the new issue of the “Empire Review” in discussing the “Problem of the Superfluous Woman.” One of the obvious difficulties about the emigration of British women to the colonies is that many of these “odd women,” because of the circumstances of their bringing up, are unsuitable for the strenuous life that awaits them in the new countries. It is suggested that this could bo removed by an Imperial scheme of training in domestic service, fruit, dairy, and poultry farming, and housewifery—a scheme in which the various Governments of the Empire should cd-operato. The writer appeals to the suffragettes to take up the idea- and advance it by their undoubted powers of organisation and persuasion. “The scheme, put into practical operation, would,” it is urged, “brighten the lives of thousands of slum-bred girls, working at present in poorly paid or sweated industries, who shrink with the timidity of the downtrodden from the bold step of ■ leaving hearth and home and of seeking, unaided and friendless, brighter prospects in a new land. It would open vietas of a useful career to many gently-nurtured yet capable girls living dull, secluded lives m peaceful English country homes. It would bring a gleam of hope to many a. university girl at present eating her heart out in a monotonous and dreary existence, waiting for the active life' that never comes. “It should he a public duty to provide employment for our superfluous female, population, gentle and simple, no less tiian for our necessitous workmen.”