ONE OF BRITAIN’S BUSY WOMEN Trained Engineer

Southland Times, Issue 23610, 10 September 1938, Page 17

ONE OF BRITAIN’S BUSY WOMEN Trained Engineer

LONDON, August 5. One of Britain’s busiest women is Miss Caroline Haslett, founder and director of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women. Miss Haslett has been attending the annual conference of the business women’s federation in Budapest. She made the journey to Hungary by air, and, leaving London one morning, kept a dinner engagement in Budapest the same evening. Subjects the conference had been discussing included: “Adjusting women to the changing world,” “Ways of putting more women into executive positions,” and “How to get more women into parliaments and local government.” Though Italian women were represented at the conference, there were no German or Austrian delegates this year. The Austrian organization has apparently ceased to exist—leaders of the movement elsewhere do not know what has become of it.

After Budapest Miss Haslett goes on to Vienna for the World Power Conference. There she will meet experts from nearly 40 countries, who are to discuss how water, coal, gas and electricity are being used throughout the world.

A charming and extremely capable woman, Miss Haslett was trained as an engineer during the war, and for five years she worked with a boiler company in London and Scotland. She was first secretary of the Women’s Engineering Society. Fourteen years ago she started the Electrical Association for Women, with the aim of educating women, and particularly housewives, in the proper use of electricity. The movement began in a minute room in London. Today it is one of the most flourishing women’s organizations in the country, with branches in many towns. Through the E.W.A. Miss Haslett has succeeded in making electrical demonstrating an attractive career for girls, and has established the training on a sound basis.

Her ability has been widely recognized, and in 1931 she was awarded the C.B.E. She is a member of numerous engineering and electrical committees, and is a companion of the Institute of Electrical Engineers. She is also a director of the Forum Club, one of the leading women’s clubs in London.

With all these activities, Miss Haslett has little time for recreation, but she is fond of golf and motoring, and is a member of the Women’s Automobile Club. She is also a keen gardener, and when she can get away from her work, she goes down to her all-electric cottage by the sea. Once asked where the cottage was, she shook her head, and said, “I don’t tell anybody that, it is the only bit of private life I have.”