SOCIAL POSITION.

As to social position, girls who would have been cherished at home, and not allowed to work out before the war, were now being allowed to do what would then have been described as “perfectly unheard of,” almost independent of home control. Many people thought this was to be only for the duration of the war. (Laughter.) But it was pretty certain that the majority of girls would not go back to the old strict life, and that entailed a changed attitude as regarded the relationship between the sexes. We were bound to recognise that these girls had not always shown themselves fit for freedom, and that some men had not treated them with that respect which the free woman worker had a right to demand. All must learn what true comradeship between the sexes meant, and that would solve many difficulties. But men were yet far from accepting women workers as comrades. Men and women should take the now situation simply and naturally.

Women workers must not ape the ways of men, or be afraid to be themselves. (Cheers.) It was a pity so many women and girl workers had taken to excessive smoking. They should not try to be sham men; neither should they try to be what they thought men wished them to be. (Cheers.) Regarding public work, something might be learned from the mistakes of the past. If the higher positions in the Civil Service had been open to women, we should now have women trained and ready to fill them, instead of having to get such places by chance, and sometimes through inside influence. (Hear, hear.)

Their position in Government offices was far from satisfactory; there was a large amount of official jealousy keeping them out of the higher positions. They were not sufficiently represented on departmental and other committees, where their special experience was much needed. A departmental committee had recently been appointed to consider the salaries of teachers in elementary schools, the majority of whom were women, yet there were only four women on the committee, against fourteen men.