Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria University College, Wellington N.Z. Vol. 20, No. 12. August 15, 1957
Why do Women Come to Varsity?
Why do Women Come to Varsity?
The spheres of employment open to graduates in New Zealand are severely limited, especially to graduates in Arts.
One of the main spheres is the Public Service. It is therefore the duty of students to take a look at the terms of employment imposed by the Public Service, to see the sort of chances they will have to fulfil their obligations to the country that has equipped them for their life's work, and the sort of rewards they can expect for that work.
Women, especially, will find some interesting things about the Service. Notably that, although New Zealand gave women the vote before any other country in the world, she now lags well behind the rest of the world in failing to apply the obviously just principle that human beings should be rewarded according to the job they do regardless of their sex.
If a woman is lucky enough to be appointed to the Professional Division of the Service (i.e., as a scientist, doctor, architect or lawyer), her scales do not differ from those of men.
If she enters the General Division in a social service type of job (e.g., vocational guidance, child welfare, Maori welfare, probation officer), she is at some disadvantage. The scales are related closely to teachers' salary scales, except that there are more steps in the scale, though avenues of promotion are not completely blocked.
The third main division, the Clerical Division, is the general training-ground for administrators, who, on reaching a certain status, transfer to the Administrative Division, from which women appear to be excluded. Since 1947, girls have been accepted as cadets to the Clerical Division, figures showing that they are generally better qualified educationally than Boys. The first eight steps of the basic grade or Class VI are equal. The boy moves on automatically to the eleventh step, when he has reached his automatic maximum. To rise further he must be appointed to an advertised job in Class V, or to be upgraded at a general reading (which takes place every five years).
The eighth step is the end of the girl's automatic promotion. She is on the first "female salary bar"—at present £625, and to move up one step she has to satisfy her Department and the Public Service Commission that she has personal qualities (initiative, versatility, responsibility) above the average, and is doing the full range of a Class VI job—which is not clearly specified.
Up till now there have been no written standards laid down—the Commission has not admitted that a woman must be actually superior to her male counterpart in order to be given the same advantages, and each Department has been free to make or not make recommendations for promotion of one step. Report markings, supposed to be based on efficiency and suitability for advancement, show a higher average for women than for men. But the Commission does not claim that women are inferior workers—it shifts its ground. Its basic argument is: Why should we pay women more than they could get in outside employment? The Public Service Association has challenged the Commission to show where, outside the Service, women are paid less for doing the same work as men. On the limited information available in statistics it appears that generally women in private employment are relegated, through convention and lack of training, to inferior clerical duties.
Pamphlets and publicity offering girls "careers" in the Public Service demand equal qualifications and equal work, but the implied promise of equal chances for promotion is not fulfilled. The first bar (£625) is followed by two further bars (£665 and £725) to pass which it is also necessary to have special recommendations. Thus, while men are classified only according to "class" (from VI at the bottom to Special at the top), there are, in effect, four subclasses within Class VI as far as women are concerned. To illustrate:
Men advance from £310 to £765 by automatic advancement in 11 steps.
Women
advance—- from £310 to £625 automatically, then
- from £625 to £665 only on recommendation, then
- from £665 to £725 only on recommendation, then
- from £725 to £765 only on recommendation.
Above £625 a woman must "prove herself" on nebulous standards which vary from Department to Department, and are dependent basically on the attitude of her controlling officers and Departmental head to the place of women in the Service and the society generally.
The recommended steps were the subject of an agreement between the Association and the Commission in 1945. The reforms of having women put on the permanent staff and getting girls accepted as cadets, were achieved. Women had not, till then, proved themselves in full clerical positions, and the Commission was forced into this compromise on the basis that where there was equality of performance there should also be equality of pay. Twelve years later, equality of performance by women is disputed, yet the Commission is showing no sign of (to quote its own statement in a letter to the Association in 1949) "making the principle of equality a realiry."
Male. | Female. | |
---|---|---|
£ | £ | |
(1) B.A., B.Com., Acets. Prof. | 665 | 625 |
(2) M.A. | 720 | 720 |
(3) M.A. with first-class hons. | 765 | 765 |
A woman with one of the three degrees in the first line is evidently worth less than a man with the same qualifications.
A woman with an M.A. (as in the second line) has two bars to cross.
A woman with a first-class M.A. has two bars to cross—this before she can reach the maximum which is automatic for all men with three years' secondary school education! Her only way round this is her right to appeal on non-promotion every live years.
As seniority is fixed by the maximum salary for the Class (that is, £765 for Class VI), until a woman has passed the third bar she is regarded as junior to every man or boy who enters the Service. This is not merely irritating or embarrassing: it damages the woman's chances when appealing against a man in a Class V job.
The present distribution of women in the Service according to an address given by the Chairman of the Commission in Christchurch earlier this year are:
Class VI | 2059 |
Class V | 143 |
Class IV and above | 24 |
Women are indeed "breaking through!" This may be your choice for a career, but it is as well to know what you are choosing. A spokesman for the Equal Pay Sub-committee for the Association states that fighters are welcome.
* * *
I'm glad I'm an American,
I'm glad that I am free,
I wish I was a little dog
And Eisenhower a tree.
—"Varsity," Cambridge.
* * *
There was a young fellow called Steve
In a grave-yard on All-Hallows Eve
Was stricken by lightning
Which was so very frightening
That it wasn't worth his trouble to leave.
* * *
The College closes for the vacation on Saturday, 17th August. The third term opens on Monday, 9th September.
"On many occasions modern Popes have condemned in no uncertain terms the conditions of society which have forced or encouraged married women to engage in such work. But with regard to the wages paid to unmarried women or to married women who are obliged to work from sheer necessity, justice demands that for equal work they should be paid the same as men."
—Editorial in "N.Z. Tablet," 19th June, 1957.
"We all think—and that includes the Government—that the objective of equal pay and equal opportunity is an Idea that we should all work for, perhaps with the idea of bringing it about a little faster."
—Rt. Hon. S. G. Holland. "Evening Post," 4th October, 1956.
"If a woman does work under the same conditions as a man, and it is of equal quality, she is entitled to the same pay."
—Rt. Hon. Walter Nash. "Evening Post." 28th May, 1957.