FOREIGN INFLUX.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 661, 14 January 1933, Page 20 (Supplement)

FOREIGN INFLUX.

Emancipation of Modern Domestics. WOMAN OF VISION NEEDED. In the House of Commons recently, it was stated in answer to an inquiry, that over 600 permits had been issued to German domestics by the Ministry of Labour during the period of six months, May to October, last year. Surely this is an astonishing state of affairs at a time when thousands of and girls in England are seeking work, many of them drawing unemployment benefit. An M.P., on hearing these figures, asked whether it was not possible to represent to employers of domestics that it was highly unpatriotic to engage these foreigners while British women were available; whereupon another M.P. retorted, ‘‘You can’t get them”—the truth, and a highly unpalatable truth. The pity of it! Here are hundreds of families wanting maids in many of which conditions are by no means unattractive, and wages, compared with those in other occupations, are quite satisfactory. To-day, most of the restrictions which often in the past pressed so heavily on domestic workers have broken down. “ Mary Anne ” has her separate bedroom, her “ hours off,” a gramophone and wireless in the maids’ sitting-room, and sometimes the use of a car. As to her wages: she often gets almost as much resident as the non-resident typist, who has all the wear-and-tear of the daily journeyings to and from the office, which reduces her net earnings considerably. The Living-fei Question. And yet ... the supply of typists is ever increasing, that of domestics decreasing. Why? it is asked, and the answer is perfectly simple. In England domestic service is looked down upon, and its social status far lower than in most Continental lands. There it is considered “ menial ” to light fires, wash floors and clothes, turn out and clean rooms. The French mesdames across the Channel, well-educated ladies; constantly do all their own household work, and are proud of their skill as housewives and cooks, as indeed our grandmothers, were in those Victorian days of which so much is written and so Jittle known. But there is another obstacle to domestic service—the living-in question, and until there is some change in the system which shall enable the household workers to enjoy the same advantages as the clerical workers in the matter of non-residential work no large number of the freedom-loving

; young women of to-day will enter • domestic service. But it should not be impossible to attract to an occupation which must : needs exist, as long as families exist, i a large number of girls to whom the ■ actual work itself is by no means dis- ; agreeable and for the majority of ■ whom it is an admirable preparation . for the “ common lot ” of women, that is, marriage and the management of a , home. But a woman of vision is needed to do for the household worker what Florence Nightingale did for the nurses. She raised their status by insisting on the training of nurses, and making out of the “ Sairey Gamps ” of an earlier age the highly trained nurses of to-day, who belong to an organised and greatly respected profession. The training of girls for domestic work in properly constituted colleges under municipal or Government control would at once place household service on a proper basis. And, further, in towns such workers may well be, in a very large number of cases, non-residential employees with definite hours. Where only one such worker is employed the employer must i of necessity do a certain amount of household work herself. But this 1 would probably be advantageous, for when “ Mary Anne ” sees that Madam does riot think it beneath her dignity • to do work in the home she will prob- ; ably no longer regard such an employment as “ menial.”