SHOULD WOMEN BUILD HOUSES

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8360, 23 July 1920, Page 3 (Supplement)

SHOULD WOMEN BUILD HOUSES

t 37,000 WAR HUTS WHICH STOOD ’ THE TEST. Should women build their own ' “° u ses? The question was put by a ) Chronicle” representative to Mr. W. G. Tarrant, the Government I contractor who employed so many ! women during the war. "Women are perfectly capable of building wooden houses,’’ he replied In wartime the women I employed in France made 37,000 huts. Their work was of the highest quality. Two months’ training turned them into efficient, thorough workwomen. I should like to see women at the work again. But the attitude of the trade unions is the difficulty. Women could make wooden houses in the workshops, and if they could be so employed there is no doubt it would ease the housing difficulty.” The secretary of the Women’s Industrial League said the woman carpenters employed during the war would be very glad to get back to their old job. "Our league is anxious to establish the principle for women of equal entrance with men into every industry,” she said. “At present the number of trades open to women is so limited that most of them are overcrowded. We are in complete sympathy with the general aims of trade unionism, but we think it uneconomical that the skill gained ' by women in war work should now be lost in the country. Ultimately, we hope that no women will be debarred from certain work by trade union regulations simply because of their sex.”

Mr. J. Murray, secretary of the London district of Building Trades Federation, said that there was little hope for women who wanted to build houses. “The building trades have arranged with the Ministry of Labour to train ex-soldiers, and I understand that the scheme is being held up simply because the Treasury won’t sanction a grant for the equipment of training schools. Our first duty is to these men. Obviously, we have no room for women, even if there were not other considerations against their coming into the trade.”