HITHER AND THITHER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 307, 28 December 1937, Page 2

HITHER AND THITHER

Women as Family Supporters. The Dutch Bureau for Women’s Work has recently undertaken an inquiry into the position of women as family supporters. The results have been published in the Economist. Only 20 per cent, of the women and girls who had been approached sent replies (anonymous replies in 30 per cent, of all cases), but even so the organisers have been very much struck by the fact that far more women than might have been assumed provide entirely or partly for the upkeep of their family, supporting mothers, sisters, brothers, and other dependants from frequently very meagre earnings. Eleventh Woman M.l’.

As the result of a recent by-election in the Springburn Division of Glasgow, Mrs. G. L. Hardie (Labour) will take her seat as the eleventh woman member of the H< rfj.se of Commons in Great Britain. Mrs. Ballinger, formerly lecturer at Witwatersrand University, has been returned to Parliament by natives of the Cape Eastern Division. Mrs. Ballinger enters the Union House of Assembly as the third woman M.P. in India, where women have taken such a prominent part in the last elections, 34 women members have gained seats in the various Houses of Assembly. Mrs. Rahman, Mrs. Kale, and Srimati Lakshmi Patthi are Deputy Speakers of the Assemblies of Assam, the Central Province- and Madras respectively. The Begum Shaw Nawaz will act as Parliamentary Secretary to the Punjab Assembly and Mrs. Hansa Mehta as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health, Bombay Upper House. The first Indian woman to hold a portfolio is Mrs. L. V. Pandit, who will take part in the Government of the United Provinces as Minister of Health. Women's Council. The National Council of Women, which exists, briefly, to promote sym- | pathy among women of all classes, encourage conditions to ensure every child a chance in life, and work for the general improvement of women's lot, gives interesting information about a domestic servants’ exhibition to be held early next year in the Royal Horticultural Hall. Demonstrations to mistresses and maids of the best and easiest ways of running a home will be a feature. Competitions are being arranged, and maids will be invited to compete in such domestic duties as table-laying, shoe-cleaning, taking telephone messages, simple home valeting and the like. The idea is to focus public attention on domestic service, to put it on a proper footing, so that it may give mutual satisfaction to employers and employees. Ishbel, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, the Dowager Lady Nunburnholme, the Countess of Claredon the Countess of Selborne. Viscountess Astor and Miss Megan Lloyd George are active members of the council which has its own official booklet dealing with aspects of life in all classes, and is representative of over 2,000,000 women.