WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16958, 23 May 1929, Page 7

WOMEN IN BUSINESS

HANDICAP TO BOYS DEARTH OF DOMESTICS (Special to the Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. A suggestion for the relief of unemployment, .tentatively advanced by Dr. E. P. Neale before the Economic Society, was that New Zealand girls should be persuaded to take up domestic work, so leaving the positions in business they now occupy open to boys. The excessive number of women entrenched in positions in the cities made it very difficult for boys leaving school to gain a foothold, 'said Dr. Neale. Owing to the war there had been a spectacular increase of women in commercial offices, the majority of them rarely rising above junior positions; indeed, the niumber had doubled from 1911 to .1921. At. tho same time there were 4000 more boys, relative to the population, looking for work. Although the position was serious there were evidences of a coming change. The world tendency toward a lower birth rate, together with the exceptionally few births during the war, meant" that the number of young people seeking work was becoming smaller every year, and, in addition, it was to be noted that there was now a tendency in the business world to curtail the number of posts open for women. These factors were hopeful for the future, and would eventually relieve the position'.automatically, but, in the meantime, Dr. Neale thought matters could be cased considerably if women: could bo persuaded to confine their activities to domestic work. Dr. Neale admitted that his suggestiton might be difficult of fulfilment as there was a growing dislike among young women for household duties. Whereas 12,000 were shown in the 1911 census to be assisting in the home, the number so classed in 192(> was only 2000. Nevertheless, the present situation could be almost equally cased by seeking extra outlets for women in gainful employment as by seeking extra outlets for lads.