WORK AND SEX

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19833, 23 June 1934, Page 11

WORK AND SEX

THE UNJUST BARRIER Sir William Beveridge, speaking as director of the London School of Economics at a function in connection with the Women’s Employment Federation, said theirs was an a-sexual institution, and made no kind of difference between men and women, except that the women went into the lift first (the London "Daily Telegraph” reports). They had successfully adopted the principle of sex equality and equal opportunity for merit irrespective of sex, but the world, however sympathetic, had not yet put it into practice. They must not rest merely with the declaration of that principle, so long as sex was a barrier to women getting employment. As for the contention that women sometimes obtained jobs that men needed because they had to maintain wives and families, he thought that this was one of the most damaging fallacies we had ever had. The besttrained person should be in the place for which he or she was most suited. The fact that the industry was in need of the very best brains was the best of all reasons for removing the barrier of prejudice which existed on the score of sex. (Hear, hear). The federation has been formed with the object of co-ordinating the work of the various societies concerned with the training and employment of educated women, and Miss Grace Hadlow, the president, said that the federation was blessed with headquarters and a library of information rent free until it was self-supporting. The Dowager Lady Nunbumholme, who presided, appealed for contributions toward the raising of a fund of £BOO for initial and working expenses.