The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-30
Equal Pay For Men and
 Women Teachers in Alabama
SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT By MRS. SIDNEY NJ. ULLMAN

The injustice shown women teachers in
 regard to salaries Is forcefully shown In a
 letter written by prominent woman
 teacher of Alabama. who desired to put the matter in connection with equal pay
 before the suffragists of the state. She
 writes as follows:
 There is a matter I wish to bring be- fore the suffrage movement in Alabama in connection with school work. l have before me the schedule of sal aries paid to the teachers of one of our largest cities. In part 1t reads thus: Department teachers. men. s1500; de-
 partment teachers. women, s9O0.
 Note the difference, please. of $500 for
 the same work. It is that way all along
 the line
 T visited this same school last spring.
 spending more than an hour in on
 woman's room-a 800 woman. A class of
 70 or 30 girls came in. bright, eager. in-
 tense earnestness. and an impatience to begin written on every smiling face. It was theme day. too. I have been fin many
 school rooms. but that hour goes beyond | anything l ever experienced.
 Tn November we were visiting one of
 the largest state schools for girls, and | asked to be taken into the class room of the head of the history department The lesson had begun, a man was at tho
 board; two or three girls showed a mild
 sort of interest; there was no enthusl-
 asm. just a dead. cheerless leaden atmos- phere. This professor" received, I sup pose, no less than 5000 a year.
 T have spent the last and best eight years of my own life in a certain town. took the school. wild. ungraded. uncon- trolled Big bad boys and uneultured girls were worked with patiently until they saw better things. and began to wish for them. and strive for them. l have been teaching IS years and never saw such a change In a place. From Just an ordi- nary little school we built up first a thor oughly graded grammar school finally adding three full years of high school. had four teachers. mind you, including myself, to do all this teaching, together with domestic science work for the
 girls, and school garden work and some
 normal training for the boys. To do
 this kept me actually teaching from s:SO to 4:15, looking after other interests or the school when I could. In addition, there was no one who would board the teachers. I had to take house and
 keep them. l loved the school. the boys
 and girls. I wanted them to be some- thing Last year 1 asked for q raise In salary They could not see their way to 1t, although they had money for other public interests. Just before school closed I asked the man who had been financial supporter of the school if my salary could not be raised, only to receive the reply, They did not see how 1t could pc done I resigned. They began to look G., tA tal They could not find woman, so a man was employed at $40 per month more than they gave me- The work Is done, the school runs now like an oiled machine He will hear five or six recitations day against my 15 or 20; the incidental ex- penses will be doubled
 Cannot something be done to bring about the following changes:
 Il. Equal pay for men and women doing the same work, on the same grade certificate and with the same years of experience.
 70. That discrimination be not showr a against the employment of women wh' have made teaching a profession IT | favor of men.
 "Did you know that only one count, high school in tho state has a woman lprincipal? have written to about hal | of them concerning work, and they arr making their assistants even men.
 "The changes would require no nor
 money-just & leveling of what Is al
 ready appropriated.
 | "Of course 1t will be met with storn of protest from the men. They will charge inefficiency, carelessness ant flippancy against the women: but listen l I am going to make a counter charge | and from a long experience. In pro portion to the number of men and wom
 en employed there is 10 times the In efficiency, bad manners and bad morals
 among the men.
 | 'Inefficiency-why one of Dr. Phil | lips best principals was taught by th' | writer how to I'll na public school. often went out on the grounds ant
 stood between boys nearly grown wh,
 were Nightingale was afraid! Yet If
 wrote Dr. Phillips tomorrow for a place
 and told him I would have to have $5' | per month for my work he would say
 he had nothing for me- and yet this mar
 gets s125. I suppose.
 T go to the state conventions. but | do not and will not enroll-why? Be.
 cause my great grandfathers tough
 against taxation without representa-. | ton at Brandywine and Valley Forge | The enrolment fee isn't much. but they will never get 1t until discrimination ceases and at least every other presi-
 dent of that convention Is a womanl "If there Is anything I can do to helr