SHOULD WOMEN BE ON AN EVEN FOOTING WITH MEN AS REGARDS LABOUR?

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 83

SHOULD WOMEN BE ON AN EVEN FOOTING WITH MEN AS REGARDS LABOUR?

AFFIRMATIVE. —By Roxana. (Paper read before the Dunedin Club.) One must live; it is one’s duty to one’s self; it is one’s duty to the community. To live requires either money or its equivalent. A woman needs shelter just as much as a man—some say, even more so. A woman requires food just as a man does. A woman also needs clothing, and amusements or recreation. I mention these obvious facts, not that I think my opponents are not aware of them, but merely to show them that I am aware of them. Some persons seem to think that because a person happens to be of “ the eternal feminine” that that person can claim the right to only a small wage for a certain quantity of work. It. is my contention that for a certain stated amount of work done the workers should be paid a precisely similar amount, whether the worker be man or woman. If a clerk goes into an office in quest or a billet he is told that the merchant can obtain girls to do the same work as a male clerk at about Lalf the wage. Is that as it should, be ? If woman has the right to claim equality with man as ■ regards labour, surely man ought also to have an equal right with women in that respect! In many oases it is a woman who has to act as the mainstay of her family. We will all, I think, admit that. But in many cases it is a man who has to he the support of the family. That also is indisputable. Vow, that woman will undertake certain duties to obtain the money needed, but will be contented in a great many instancies with a lot less than the wages for which a man would do the same work. The woman gets the work! Then look nere! —has that woman’s family more right to live than the man’s? Vo! Yet, in the man’s case, he is, let us say, supporting several little brothers and sisters, keeping himself, and also in many cases he is trying to make in order to be able to marry some day. The woman is supporting herself and her little brothers and sisters, hut she, on the other hand, has no provision'to make for the expense incurred in setting up housekeeping; it is man’s part of the bargain. The result of this state of affairs is this; that men cannot got work at a paying wage, simply because employers can get women for less. The question of whom they are supporting does not trouble the employer; ha wants certain work dene, and women will <lo it more cheaply, therefore he employs women. f he were compelled to pay the same wage to man and woman alike for the same amount of work, then we should be judged on our own merits entirely. Fairer than that none can ask. As regards labour, my opinion, therefore, is that women . should certainly be placed cn an equal footing with “ mere man.” NEGATIVE.— By Aeeta. In upholding the side I am doing I hope I may state that I am not a suffragette. I do net think a woman ought to be on an equal footing with man as regards labour. A woman has no right to do the work a man does, because she is physically unfit, and, in many cases, mentally unfit. The ■Creator made man and woman altogether different. He gave each sufficient strength to do certain work, befitting the respective sexes. Man is physically much stronger than woman, though his power of endurance may not he so great. When a woman undertakes a man’: work, with intent to do a man out of bis work, she ultimately undermines her own strength, even if for many yeans she does not feel the strain. If she* does not die in the prime of her life, her old age will he , deprived of enjoyment through ill-health. I believe that in some coal mines in the Old Land women do the -work of men. If they marry their offspring are not robust and strong, so the hard work is bound to show in some way. One never hears of women caippnters, engineers, bricklayers, etc., etc. If women were meant to he on an equal footing with men with regard to labour, the strength would have been given to them. Also, if women did attempt such hard work men would despise them. Man has enough to do to get work and make both ends meet without women coming in and usurping his place in Such trades as I have mentioned. To a certain extent the modern woman is putting herself on an equal footing with man as regards labour. Take the girl who learns shorthand and typewriting. She is fitting herself to be a clerk. She starts in an office and receives from £1 to £1 15s a week. No man could or would 1 work at the same rate of week for less then £2 per week. A great number of men, quite competent enough to do the work these women aro doing, are failures, or else have to find some other means of employment, simply because women are taking the bread cut of their •mouths by working for a lower salary. And another argument against it is that some women clerks do not have to earn their bread. They have comfortable homes, but want to have a few more 'shillings to squander. One woman works as a hobby, as T heard her say. Now, is that fair to man? How can men be expected to marry when women deliberately usurp their work? How can they do anything but despise the woman for taking the bread out of their mouths? Some women go in for professions. They ■study law and medicine, and become firstclass lawyers and doctors. What does 1 it avail them ? I do not say women do not succeed in such professions, for they undoubtedly do, but what is the after effect? In most cases the women either have to give in, owing to nervous prostration, or else they get married. What use then is

the practice they have built up? Would it not have been better to have let some striving student apply for the practice the woman so much coveted? It would be the same with all trades or professions in time that a woman entered as an 'equal with man: she would have to give it up either for physical or mental reasons, or the natural"instincts of marriage and maternity. Women are meant to go in for the artistic and the useful work relating to their sex. A woman succeeds fairly well in planning, but I knew a woman who once planned her own house. She thought of everything according to herself, but when the carpenters went to build that house they did not think it very practical. Tney thought otherwise, and that house is held up to derision yet and has been for sale for many years, but cannot find a buyer. I say, let a woman succeed at her domestic duties, at dressmaking, and all the -arts relative to such, and so on, but do not let her usurp man's place find put herself on an equal footing with man as regards labour.