War Work for Women of Fifty
The Government's proposal to register women of the age-group 47 to 5o inclusive has produced emphatic protests in the House of Commons, and a strongly backed motion has been tabled depre- cating it. No one doubts that this is a critical moment in the war when we must turn out the absolute maximum of munitions, and the Ministry of Labour has the task of finding if possible more young women for the more strenuous jobs, which at this stage of the war generally means finding older women to replace them. But throughout the country there is a very strong feeling that the " domestic front " has already been combed as closely as it can be. The brunt of maintaining home life everywhere, and small industries when the men have been called up, falls almost exclusively upon a diminishing number of middle-aged women, who look after the children and the very old and perform a host of other duties, and are more strenuously engaged in really essential work than one way and another many of those in the Services. Mr. McCorquodale promised in the House of Commons last Tuesday that these older age-groups would be handled with the greatest care, and that middle- aged women would in the main only be directed to work in their own neighbourhood. He admitted that he did not expect to get from these groups more than a few thousands of women, and it may well be questioned whether the results will justify the general registration. of four classes of hard-worked and worried housewives. The Government might well yield to public opinion here.
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