A NEW CAREER FOR WOMEN
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]
Sna,—The article in your issue of May 27th by E. L. Hasluck on Careers in the Local Government Service necessarily touches but briefly on the various branChes of the Service, but it has also one notable omission : it makes no mention of Housing. This department of municipal activity has by now established its right to rank in importance with Public Health and Education. The building of new housing estates, the clearance of the slums and the abatement of overcrowding are conferring incalculable benefits upon the working people, and at the same time creating a fresh crop of social problems. Some of these problems may be mitigated, if not solved, by skilled management of these housing estates by officers trained in the social as well as the technical aspectS of housing.
My object is to draw attention to the useful and interesting career that is open to women in Housing Management, in par- ticular under Local Authorities. Women trained on the " Octavia Hill " System are being increasingly employed in the management of municipal estates, which includes the transfer- ence of families from shim areas and overcrowded dwellings to Council houses, the establishment of close personal contact with them, kept up by weekly visits for rent-collection, and the main- tenance and supervision of the estates.
Candidates for training are urgently needed in order to keep pace with the demand, and to ensure that the valuable contribu- tion which trained women can make both to the solution of housing problems and to the efficiency of the Local Government Service shall have a chance to increase. The training is not inordinately long or expensive ; eighteen months to two years suffices for the girl of twenty or upwards who has reached matriculation standard, and £50 should cover her training and examination fees, unless she attempts one of the higher qualifi- cations, such as the B.Sc. in Estate Management or the Fellow- ship examinations of the Chartered Surveyors' Institution. She receives practical training in a housing-estate office under a. woman manager, and may receive a small salary during the latter part of her course.
Posts as Housing Manager or Property Manager under a Local Authority carry a varying degree of administrative respon- sibility according to the magnitude and organisation of the work;
in any case, the woman manager's job is full of human interest and variety, and often calls forth her capacity for tactful dealing with " difficult " or uninstructed Councillors, as described in your article, as well as troublesome and careless tenants. The profession is still in the " pioneer " stage, and local prejudice and criticism have often to be faced. Among its more enter- prising members are the trained women who have recently gone out to South Africa to introduce the Octavia Hill System of management in the municipalities of Cape Town, Johannesburg and East London.
Salaries at present range from £250 to £450, and for assis- tants from Lao or £200 to L300 or over. Posts under Local Authorities are not, of course, the only ones available to trained women housing managers, nearly all Housing Associations employ them, and also some private landlords. But municipal employment offers the best prospects and the greatest scope at present, besides the opportunity for becoming a member of a body with an established reputation and a high standard of public service. Both men and women with university degrees or of similar educational and cultural standing are far too few in our Local Government Service, in spite of the interesting careers it offers ; the difficulties in the way of their entry to the Service are admittedly considerable, but they are not insuper- able ; the profession I have described offers one avenue of entry for women. This profession is by no means overcrowded, and there is a serious shortage of trainees.
Space forbids me to go into further detail ; those interested are invited to write to me for information, or to apply to : The Secretary, Society of Women Housing Managers (Incorporated), 13 Suffolk Street, Pall Mall, S.W. r.—I am, Sir, yours faithfully,
IRIS E. HORT,
Housing Manager, Cheltenham Corporation. Hurstbourne Tarrant, Andover, Hants.
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