AMERICAN WOMAN'S TRIUMPH.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 16152, 29 November 1924, Page 13 (Supplement)

AMERICAN WOMAN'S TRIUMPH.

English women reformers in the large-hearted .way characteristic of them are congratulating the Women s Party in Maryland, U.S.A., on the passing of the Teachers’ Equal Pay for Equal Work Bill, one of twentysix measures dealing with equal rights introduced by that organisation. They themselves have agitated for this return in vain, though they could point out that Denmark, a less, wealthy country than Britain, has conceded this At a meeting discussing the question, the Lord Mayor of York based his support for women’s claim on his point of view as a trades unionist, a reason that is not often given. | A good contribution to the discussion is made by one writer, who says:! "Women’s claim for the importance of status should stand them in good stead. They claim, and claim rightly, the proper rate for the job, whether , the job bo performed by man or | woman. And if they show that they are prepared to take a low rate for the work so long as no more than tnat is paid to other individuals for the same while admitting that provision must be otherwise made for the dependents of those colleagues who have dependents—in other words if they accept and welcome the system of family endowment hand in hand with that of equal pay for equal work they will have gone a lone: way towards' providing the authorities with what seems to he the only way in which, in our present circumstances, ! equal pay can be considered a prac- > tical proposition.” There is some knowledge of psychoI logy in this summing up. Only those who have worked with large numbers j of women know how much more they dislike the inferior status of the lesser I sa'arv, and how really indifferent they * sometimes are io the mere money part of the question. They pardon the injury of that inferior pay, but not the insult of the idea that quickly rises , from it—the, belief that they arc therefore inferior workers.