WOMEN AS EMPLOYEES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3003, 4 October 1911, Page 43 (Supplement)

WOMEN AS EMPLOYEES.

▼ Large employers in the United States, where more women perhaps than in any other country earn , a living as clerks and secretaries,' are gradually coming to the conclusion that it is better commercial and industrial policy to employ men wherever possible to the exclusion of women (writes

the New York correspondent of the London Daily Mail). The reason? given fcur this significant aind important change in the attitude of employers is that " women axe interested primarily in matrimony, and regard their work merely as a temporary expedient." Foremost among the protagonists of the n&w movement, apia-t from the post office, are the great railways and industrial corporations. Gradually, gently, almost secretly, they are replacing women em-

ployees with men. The Southern Pacific Railway, imitating the policy already adopted by a ruumber of Eastern railways, issued a mew regulation prohibiting the employment of women in the Western passenger department. This is only one of a dozen similar cases in which the door of employment has been closed softly, but none the less definitely, in the face of women. As a well-known railway manager expressed it, " we are not slamming the door against women. We fear the general outcry

and unfounded criticisms such action would cause. In the administration of railways continuous service is a prime requisite. We need' employees who are eager to olimb the ladder of promotion. Unfortunately women regard business as a mak: shift. They become stenographers and clerks, not with a view to obtaining higher positions, but nr.erely to earn enough money to meet their needs. A woman holds a position l with her eyes open for the first chance of leaving it. Her main desire is marriage, and as

soon as the man appears she deserts the otiice ior the home."

According to the head of a largo company, women shorthand writers and clerks on an average do not work longer than three years. After that they marry. Moreover, those who do not marry and remain in employment after 30 years of age do not improve like the men. They rarely strive fa> raise themselves into executive positions, to " branch out," or help build up their company as men do.

THE ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITION FOR THE NEW PARLIAMENT BUILDING, WELLINGTON: FIRST FOUR PRIZE DESIGNS.