GIRLS IN BANKS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLX, Issue 22004, 2 July 1941, Page 3

GIRLS IN BANKS

MANAGER’S PRAISE OF WORK The entry into banks of large numbers of girls to replace men who have left either for service overseas or for home defence marks a new development in the way of careers for girls, at least as far as New Zealand is concerned. Bank staffs in the Dominion have hitherto been predominantly male, but the sight of numbers of young girls m their late teens, working ledger-keep-ing machines behind the mystic barriers which are characteristic of bank buildings, is one to which the general public is now becoming accustomed. Bank staffs have suffered considerable depletion since the outbreak jf war ano the bulk of the juniors—young men who, for the most part, operate the various book-keeping machines—are serving in the fighting forces. The girls, many of whom have just left school, and others who have had a course at a business college, have been recruited to fill the men’s places and, according to Auckland bank managers, are doing it very well. .. One bank has taken on 20 girls since tne outbreak of war, another 10, and others lesser numbers. All the managers a f® unanimous in their praise of the girls who, they say, show great interest m their work and eagerness to do their best in replacing the men In the working of the various book-keeping machines. During the last war women were taken on in banks to replace the men, and there were actually a few women who rose to be tellers in southern centres of the Dominion, although not in Auckland. When the Great War endzd, however, so ended the demand for women in banks and it has taken anot®®r war to bring them back. .Th® g ' rls now employed are started a t the foot of the ladder, doing typewriting and adding-machine work, and such mysterious jobs as "details and remittances.” If older married men are enlisted for service In the •. ar, as seems likely, some of the girls who show special aptitude and reliability might be advanced to more senior i R not anticipated that there will be any great number of vacancies now until the end of the year, when the ballots for the married men are expected to take place.