H, -lIA

285. This large addition to the labour force was due to a number of reasons, among which were — (a) The patriotic desire of women to assist the war effort. (b) The economic attraction of comparatively high wages. (e) The unprecedented opening up of employment opportunities and the consequent scope for individual and social expression which this implied for many thousands of women. (d) The compulsory registration and direction of women to essential and near-essential employment. (e) The indirect pressure of the industrial mobilization regulations. 286. Direction and restriction of inflow policy was, of course, aimed at staffing essential industries, and consequently industries which have gained most from this policy have been — Farming, Textiles, Hospitals, and 'Hotels and restaurants. Women who were directed to industry between October, 1943 (when statistics in this form were first collected), and March, 1945, and who at the time were not gainfully employed numbered 8,205. The industries to which they were directed are as follows :— Farming'.. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1,517 Engineering .. .. .. .. ~ .. 441 Food and drink .. .. .. .. .. . . 705 Textiles and footwear .. .. .. .. 1,547 Other secondary .. > , .. .. .. .. 451 Shops and warehouses .. .. .. .. .. 82 Offices .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 676 Hospitals .. .. .. .. .. .. 1,147 Hotels, &c... .. .. .. .. .. .. 1,285 Miscellaneous .. .. .. .. .. .. 354 287. To a greater extent than in the case of men, women have been permitted to engage in nonessential work—i.e., work performed in an undertaking not specifically covered by a declaration of essentiality. 288. Since the end of 1943 the number of women in industry is estimated to have fallen from 228,000 to 220,000, all industries being affected. This reversal of trend is explained by the retirement of women workers to establish or re-establish a home for an ex-serviceman husband or retirement on account of age or ill health. It will be further contributed to by the relaxation of control in the cases of wives of returned servicemen and married women of forty years of age or more. 289. At the end of March of the current year there were some 15,950 women held in industry under man-power direction. Of this number, approximately 25 per cent, were held in the clothing and footwear industries and a further 20 per cent, in hospitals and sanatoria. Hotels and catering undertakings, office work, and food and drink manufacturing work came next as important industries of absorption. (iii) The Industrial Future of Women 290. In the foregoing subsection mention was made of the decline in the estimated total of females generally employed from 228,000 at the end of 1943 to 220,000 at the end of 1944. 291. From this it might be argued that with the return of large numbers of ex-servicemen (followed by their marriage in many cases) and the progressive relaxation of man-power control the female labour force will still further waste until the 1939 level or thereabouts is again reached. Inherent in this view are the assumptions that women—especially married women —will give up work wherever possible, and that employment opportunities for women will contract as the general man-power position eases. 292. While the data thus far available lends the above-stated view some force, it must be admitted that the assumptions on which it rests are open to question. 293. In the first place, it is unsafe to assume that the majority of women —married and single— prefer to give up work as soon as they are able. Many women now in gainful employment have tasted economic independence for the first time, and with it has come, in the majority of cases, new opportunities for personality development. These women, too, as pointed out in the subsection dealing with the future working population, have habituated themselves to a level of expenditure which they will not willingly forgo. If it be argued that the bulk of them would choose the scope for self-expression that the home and children offer, it might be rejoined that, even assuming this to be so, increasingly large numbers of women are endeavouring to continue in employment and maintain a home at the same time. With the small families of this generation and the enlarging scope for factory—shift and parttime —employment this is a trend that might easily grow more marked. 294. Possibly no drastic trend either towards wider industrialization or disemployment will be remarked for some time to come. It is, however, probable that, as was the case after the last war, the scope for the employment of women will remain somewhat wider than was the case at the outbreak of war. To New Zealand women this should spell enlarging employment opportunities in manufacturing industries (which continue to expand rapidly and to depend largely on female labour), in commercial and manual work (as commercial and industrial activity develops), in public administration and local-body administration (where several thousands of women have been successfully employed during the war years), and in the professions, where women are only now beginning to knock at the door long since opened to them in other countries.

36