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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol 7, No. 2 April 13, 1944

[Introduction]

A woman reader approached us with her angle on vacation work. We supplied her with space and assistance.

Students were working over the holidays; men and women, at jobs of national importance. Over that period men-students could, with a well-paid job and overtime, earn sufficient money to see them through the year, providing they lived frugally; women students, on the wages they received, could barely support themselves. It has been drawn to our notice that women could earn barely half the pay that men received over the vacation. It is an important matter for those students and we have endeavoured to present to our readers the various aspects of the problem.

The pay question was brought forcibly to the minds of those women students who worked during last holidays. On a certain job men and women doing identical work over the same period were paid in a ratio of about two to one. The official attitude to this may be gleaned from a letter from the Minister of Agriculture, replying to a petition by students working on a certain vegatable production project.

"The main point raised in your petition is that, generally speaking, female labour is as efficient as male labour, and you indicate that in your opinion on certain work at this project female labour was more efficient than male labour. With this viewpoint I cannot agree, for while it is admitted that in a few of the small tasks female labour might be more efficient, generally speaking the work which calls for sustained effort is more efficiently carried out by male labour. That this is an acknowledged fact is proven by the differential rates of payment awarded to the two sexes in practically every occupation or profession. I would further add that in those tasks where it is felt that female labour might prove as efficient as male labour, every endeavour is made to introduce piece-work, so that the worker gains that reward to which he or she is justly entitled."

A further long letter to the Minister concerned, mentioning specific arguments, was ignored. It is, however, a question which we students cannot afford to ignore; it affects us too vitally.