WASTAGE OF WOMEN By NESCA ROBB I N the urgency and
peril of the day all but our vast immediate problems are apt to be forgotten. Yet the need for planning our future efforts with the utmost vigour is not less but greater than in the past. Now is the time to look ahead, and to organise, with much else, the mobilisation of that second line of defence—the woman-power of this country. The whole question of women's part in the war effort has been shamefully neglected. It is nation-wide in its full implications ; but at this moment those most painfully affected are the professional women, whose position is full of anomalies.
The war has in many cases swept away their peace-time employment. It has not, as yet, produced alternative work. Day after day Press and radio assure them that there is a burning need for their services ; but when the individual comes forward all the facts appear flatly to contradict such assurances. For the young, able-bodied woman there are certainly openings in the land army, nursing, munition-work and the three women's services. The large temporary clerical and secretarial staffs in Government offices are also mainly recruited from the lower age-groups, a point which may be touched upon further on. But for the woman who is over age for the services, or unfit for heavy physical work, and for professional women of all ages whose qualifications are of a highly specialised kind, the situation remains infinitely depressing. The central register of the Ministry of Labour contains the names of some 96,000 specialists. Since the outbreak of war it has placed between 200 and 30o women. The others who lie buried in this august mausoleum of all the talents see little hope of a resurrection.
There may be many reasons for this, but one undoubtedly is that our civil service system of entry at the bottom and pro- motion within the service—so admirable in peace time—is too inelastic in such an emergency. Intelligence and special knowledge which should be at the country's disposal have been allowed to lie idle.
The Ministry's supplementary register of less specialised workers also holds out few prospects, though some executive posts are filled from it, and its machinery functions adequately within limits. Neither this, nor the central register, makes any provision for giving help or advice to applicants. This is not the fault of the officials, who perform their often ungrateful tasks considerately ; but it leaves the candidate with a growing sence of helplessness.
The Women's Employment Federation at Bedford College, and to a lesser degree the registers of professional bodies, are able to some extent to supply this deficiency ; but they cannot supply work in anything like sufficient quantity. Many concerns, both public and private, are inclined to turn down highly quali- fied women who have earned good salaries on the plea that they would not accept the lower rates now prevalent. This is by no means true. Most of our professional women are willing to make great sacrifices so long as they can be of use. At the same time, in any large-scale mobilisation of women's services the problem of dependants will have to be faced. It is time to banish the comfortable belief that only men have such respon- sibilities.
To return to the search for employment, the professional woman who, ready to adapt herself to any form of service, pre- sents herself at the labour exchange is likely to be told—some- times with scant courtesy—that there is nothing for her. When she inquires about training for new types of work she finds too often that facilities are non-existent, or that such courses as there are are crowded out for weeks ahead. Her quest seems as bewildering and as maddeningly inconclusive as Humpty Dumpty's embassy to the fish. It would be ludicrous if it were not tragic. Tragic it is, because it reveals in yet one more sphere the sloth, the unimaginativeness, the waste, that have come near to be our undoing.
This article naturally emphasises the national rather than the personal side of the problem, but the writer is in almost daily contact with cases of individual hardship caused by the present deadlock. For the most part these are met with admir- able courage ; it is only when a sense of frustration and useless- ness is added to the burden that hearts fail and defeatism begins to grow in those who should be a bulwark of sanity to the nation. There is real danger in such a state of things. It would have an excellent psychological effect if the Government, through responsible speakers, were to take the women of the country, as far as may be, into its confidence ; show them that energetic measures are being taken for mobilising their services, and give some help and guidance to those who may still have to wait before their contribution can become effective. As yet we have had only the paralysis of peace-time activities, not the full diversion of power into new channels. The dilution of labour by women workers and the development that this may involve have hardly been even visualised. Let us approach these problems now, with daring, with imagination, and above all with speed.
Among practical steps that might be taken would be the provision of centres throughout the country where women could be trained for the existing services, for all forms of war production and for all essential civil work in which they will have to replace men. Instructors could easily be found among the hundreds of unemployed experts, thus helping incidentally to solve in part the problem of the professional woman in war time. Then, as the men are called up; there need be no slowing down of the national effort by the influx of wholly untrained workers. If equipment is not always available let us improvise what we can and go forward. The new recruits may have to drill with broomsticks till their rifles are ready. Very well ; we will train with broomsticks too till better tools can be provided. Next, efforts should be made to use our reserves of woman power as effectively and as economically as possible. For in- stance, many young women who are at present employed as clerks and typists in Government and other offices could well be drafted into other more active work, and their places filled by some of the large number of older clerical workers, who cannot undertake heavy physical effort, and who are now un- employed and often a burden on the rates.
Finally, let us look ahead and plan, as far as is humanly possible, for likely developments. As more and more women are absorbed into industry new problems are created. There may be, for example, increased need for crèches and nursery schools, for canteens and communal kitchens, for social services of every description. Hundreds of trained women are ready and willing to undertake whatever work may be required of them ; a little intelligent forethought now may save costly inefficiency later on. Today, of grim necessity and in a sense unknown to Aristophanes, " War is the care and the business of women." Is it too much to ask that. the experience, the know- ledge, and the administrative powers of qualified women in all departments of life should be used to the full in planning and directing, as well as in carrying out this mobilisation? If time- honoured procedure stands in the way let time-honoured pro- cedure be jettisoned. New means must be devised, and quickly, to meet an unexampled situation.
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