WOMEN IN WORK.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 4 December 1926, Page 4

WOMEN IN WORK.

On more than one occasion recently the cables haye contained references to the supplanting by women of men in employment at Home. She tills the offices ami the shops, yet the unemployment which .exists is not among male clerical workers and the like, but in industrim; such as the metal trades and shipbuilding, in which women do not engage.. And in the professions, although individuals have made their mark, women, as a whole, have only been moderately successful. We do not suggest that they are less competent than men, but the public, for some reason does not feel the same confidence in them. Perhaps it is because they are still newcomers. This truth is frankly recognised by Miss M. S. Lcuck, the author of a rec-ently-published book, in which she discusses the prospects of women in various careers. Women lawyers, she says, “meet the same obstacles its the woman .physician; lack of faith in feminine capability by men and women alike when property or life is at stake.'’ That is the crux of the matter. Con’d woman but count upon the support of her own sex -she would not want for clients. Blit as yet she cannot. In most communities the numbers of women and men are approximately equal. In Britain the women are in a substantial majority. If they bestowed their patronage on sex-conscious Tines', Harley Street and the Inns of Court would house more female practitioners than male. The same consideration applies to polities. How are we to account for the fact that for certain functions and services women in the mass' prefer men? Only a very reckless person would dare* to draw a comparison between the relative abilities of the two sexes. But. science tells us that there is a psychological difference. The masculine intellect is dissimilar to the feminine. The man relies more on reason; the woman more -on intuition. Woman is sensitive and emotional; man lias «t thicker skin and a more phlegmatic temperament.' We do not know how far these distinctions are sound; at the best they, arc only broad generalisations. But it may be that man, bv virtue of his sex, is better fitted for certain walks of life than woman. And although woman may achieve an even greater degree of economic, .independence, although in her triumphal progress she may find fres'h fields to exploit, in the vast majority of cases her ultimate destiny will still bo marriage, t.ho career in which we are old-fashion-ed enough to believe she most excels. She may shine in many roles, but in none more-brightly than in that of wife ami mother, friend and helpmeet, dear partner jn the joys' and sorrows to which mankind is lielr.