CAN GUESS AND CALC'LATE

NZ Truth, Issue 1206, 10 January 1929, Page 17

CAN GUESS AND CALC'LATE

Miss f 929 Figures Other Things Besides Her Dress Account The father Grundy of our modern times, is apt to look down his nose at -the modern miss who, contrary to expectations, has entered into some sphere of usefulness other, than m the home among the domestic pots and pans.

THE idea that the woman's place was essentially the home departed with s the Victorian coaches. Enter any '. of the modern businesses of to-day : and see whether Miss 1929 cannot hold her own m the commercial world, for . instance. ' She may wear her skirts short and overdo the artistic personal decoration ! stunt a little, but brush aside these human superfluities and weaknesses [ arid you'll find a shrewd and . capable ; thoroughness that the . domineering male finds use for— in . his' business. Three swallows dd not make, a summer, nor does • one female and idle " vamp m an office constitute a whole r race of Pola Negri's, whose sole object I m life is the enslaving— real or imagii nary — of masculinity. Whyfor con- ' demn the whole sex? I Take a glance round any of our 1 modern banking houses, ' as an example, and you'll find m any. one of them as much feminine capability as you'd wish for. It's all a matter of training, and whereas the great-great aunts of these modern young women were taught by their respective mammas the mystic arts of the kitchen, their counterparts of to-day are as equally efficient, un- : der capable guidance, of competing l with the two-legged male, i "When brains were handed out women : were not m the background, and when 1... . i :

it comes to totting up a ■column of figures or handling arc adding-. machine, the girl of to-day doesn't slip any cogs. Banking is a notoriously tedious game, but the women can play it as well as the. men. Powdered arid" all, Miss 1929 can put heiv nose to the grindstone .w.ith : true thoroughness, and-if;;she^ is not (as capable m grappling with .the larger problems of the business with this 1 same capacity as the man, she is a well-oiled and smoothly-running • unit m the vast machine. When the world : war depleted the ranks of the banking fraternity, conservative directors had to turn their eyes m new directions to make up full staff complements. It has never yet been disclosed who the venturesome one was who first suggested educating the modern miss m preßent-day banking practice. At all events, the plan worked, and they carried on the. burden of the undertaking until brother Tom cast his war rags m the corner. There's not so many sitting on the high stools now, but the mere fact that these Institutions still retain the services of young women hands the loud laugh to the ancient myth that women couldn't think m terms of figures.