CAN DO EVERYTHING.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16448, 31 May 1919, Page 5

CAN DO EVERYTHING.

EFFICIENT ENGLISH WOMEN. Miss Caroline Spurgeon, professor of English literature at the University of London, and head of the department of English literature at Bedford College, stated during her visit'to Washington as a member of the British educational mission that university women of England are officering women’s military organisations' of Great Britain, the “Waacs” (the woman’s army auxiliary corps), the “Wrens” (the women’s royal naval corps), and the.“ Penguins,” or the women’s flying corps. “The last-named,” said Miss Spurgeon, “is probably to bo a permanent organisation. So, far women have done very little flying, but they are learning all the details about airplanes and automobiles. They are qualifying as draftsmen and in the construction departments. Women in London are driving trucks. Probably because they are out in the open air so much of the time their health appeal’s not to have suffered, but often to have been improved by the work. University women of England are also qualifying as engineering experts', chemists, physicists, health inspectors, and employment managers. At Bedford College a course of one year is given women to prepare them as welfare workers.” Relative to the entrance of women into industry, Miss Spurgeon, cited an interesting incident. “At the beginning of the war a woman interested in replacing men by women,” she said, “entered the Otis elevator plant in London and asked to see the factory. She was not permitted to leave the elevator to inspect the machinery, for the manager was sure the men would suspect what she wasi doing and there would bo trouble. To-day women are practically running that plant. It,has been discovered thp-t when women have the machine sense they usually have it more highly developed than men. They are quicker and more thorough. Some women, of course, never have it. “Our employment exchanges have found that shorter shifts among women produce much more efficient service. Professional sections have been added to the exchanges within the last two years. The war brought English women of education into touch with many new forms of work, and university women for the first time have recognised the value of Government labour exchanges.”