WOMEN BANKERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21147, 3 October 1930, Page 15

WOMEN BANKERS.

Now that Germany has given the world a woman plumber, there are tew industrial fields left for women to conquer, says a writer in an Australian paper. Even in that most difficult of all worlds, banking, for years only men were considered capable of putting' two and two together, and Australia is still backward in recognising the talents of women in this respect. A leading banker of New ■ York, however, after a trial lasting five years, has found women tellers—paying and receivingsuperior to men. “ A Miss Clare," he says, “ was employed as paying teller in the Maiden Lane Savings Bank for years. Up to the time we engaged her. we had experienced a lot of trouble with our men employees; so we' decided to employ ■women. There has never been a shortage since. Every night the accounts are found to balance to a cent:” Miss May Bateman, who organised a woman’s bank for women in London, testified to the same effect. “It was a bold ■ project," she admitted, “to launch a bank run by women for women, but the experiment has been a huge success. At the outset we had to face a great amount of prejudice in every quarter, but that has now been overcome." It has been said that Miss Bateman’s bank was the pioneer woman’s bank, but really, in a small way. it was anticipated bjr Mrs Priscilla Wakefield, aunt of the founder of South Australia. So far bank as 1789. Mrs Wakefield started, in the village of Tottenham, a rudimentary sayings bank for the benefit of women and children. It was arranged that members should pay every month a certain sum, graded according to age, which entitled them to a pension after they had reached 60.