WOMAN'S WORK.

White Ribbon, Volume 23, Issue 270, 18 December 1917, Page 7

WOMAN'S WORK.

Mrs Wright has just been returned at the head of the poll, the first woman to be elected a member of the Cape Province Municipality. In Richmond, Victoria, a little child of three years of age was biutally treated by her step-father in the presence of her mother, and apparently without any protest from her. The man got three months in gaol, but no charge was laid against the woman. In r» ply to a question, the State At-torney-General said it would be use less to take action against the mother. The legal presumption that she acted under compulsion of her husband would be a bar to proceedings against her. Even if she had actually taken part in the binding and gagging of the child, she would still be protected under the presumption of the law that she acted under the influence of her husband. Surely it is time the law ceased to treat a woman as an irresponsible person, just a mere appendage of her husband, and compelled to do evil at his bidding. America is employing women in the Dupont powder plant. It has also opened competitive examinations to women as munition inspectors. Many women are working at the British Headquarters in France as carpenters, chauffeurs, electrical workers. Housed in huts, under women chaperones, they work under women lieutenants. Lady Holder, President of the Australian W.C.T.U., has been appointed a Magistrate. In a certain L. 6. town, the Board of Trade became concerned about the mortality among the babies. They appointed four men to lecture to mothers on how to feed and bring up their babies, but they never thought about putting any woman on the committee. Why should they ? The men were quite competent to run that town without any assistance from the women. But alas! the women quietly stayed away from the meetings, and the gentlemen lectured to old bachelors and high school children. Next time, perhaps, that Board will consult the women before venturing to instruct them how to do their ow n work.

New York City »s holding an examination for the post of Chief Medical Examiner, who is to replace the Coroner. Both men and women physicians will be eligible. The Minister of Public Instruction in France says there are 650 women teaching in boys’ schools, with the best possible results. In the primary schools 15,000 women were employed to free male teachers, and they had shown the same devotion and competency, and maintained the same discipline as their male colleagues. Fifty women are employed on locomotive and munition work by the Grand Trunk Railway, Quebec, and a woman has replaced a watchman, and is doing the work satisfactorily. Miss Mary* Whelan is Wisconsin's first deputy woman sheriff. Flag women at crossings are a recent innovation on various railroads in America. They have long been an institution in Germany. Women are generally replacing men 111 the lighter work of the railways. Here is a hint for our Minister of Railways. Why does he not employ a few capable women? If a capable, brainy woman managed our railways, she would arrange that a late train took girls home from business on Friday nights. Women in Berlin have been elected Magistrates. For the first time, the Health Department of Columbia has appo ; nted a woman inspector. The Health Officer thinks a woman is better fitted than a man to inspect kitchens in lunch rooms and restaurants, and to judge of the cleanliness of grocery stores, markets, and soda fountains. Dr. Vary Cutler, President of the W.C.T.U. in Korea, has served as a missionary there for over a quarter of a century; for twenty years she has been superintendent of the “Salvation for all Women” Hospital, at Seoul, and for five years superintendent of the hospital of “Extended Grace” at Pyeng Yang. In her training homes for nurses she conducts courses in scientific temperance, and her students go out to spread the gospel of total abstinence among the people.

Dr. Evelyn Windsor is the first woman to be appointed to a medical position in the Canadian Army. She has the rank of Capta’n, and is attached to the Canadian Army Medu a 1 Corps in France. According to W . H. Pat ker, superintendent of the Ohio State Stove Co., ‘ women workers are swifter, more careful, steadier, and more adaptable than men. They are more ambitious, and less given to watching the dock.” Women have invaded Government offices by the tens of thousands; they have found work in munition factories ; they have entered the engineshops and shipyards; they have appeared on the land; they have taken their places as conductors of ’buses and Hams, as ticket collectors on the railw'avs, as lift attendants in public and private establishments. The remarkable disclosure which has come to us is not so much their adaptability and quickness as their physical endurance. They seem to stand the strain of long hours and arduous and exhausting work as well as, in many cases better than, men. A good many preconceived ideas have, in short, been completely upset by recent experience, and the consequence is that women are being invited to assist in new directions.—“ Daily Telegraph,” London. MOSLEM WOMEN DEMAND MONOGAMY. In Tomsk, Siberia, Moslem women at a mass meeting, held early in May, demanded that polygamy, as a tenet of religion as well as a practice, cease. WOMEN POLICE. A Conference on the work of the women police was held in July in London. Miss Darner Dawson said that there were now 560 uniformed police women working in official posts in England. Many testimonies to the success of their work were given by police officers and others. WOMEN IN RUSSIA. Under the Act issued by the Provisional Government to reorganise the judicial system of Russia, women as well as men, who possess the necessary qualifications, are eligible as Magistrates and Judges.