The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1943-05-20

our part also in the shaping Of the new
world. From the struggle we are now
engaged in, "a new society must emerge
in which the true interests Of the
peoples, their welI-being, health, happi-
ness and economic security, must be
the first consideration. If men and
women can march together as equals,
each making their own contribution 10
the common good Of humanity then
the new world we 50 ardently desire
will be more quickly attained"
Employers as we'll as the women
themselves, Florence Hancock declared,
are now realizing their value and i'm
portance as workers. Recently, the in
dustry which employs the largest mum
Der Of women workers adopted a sub
stantially increased minimum time rate
for them. This was an act of elemen-
tary justice, as many women who We're
directed into essential war work suf-
fered an actual loss Of wages on leav
ing their own industry.
Miss Hancock emphasized the sig
nifcant fact that in national wage
claims put forward by unions today
the same wage advances are claimed
for both men and women, and in some
cases larger Increase has been con
ceded TO women. We welcome this de-
velopment," she said, las IA recogni
Of hx to h.
industrial outlook previously existing
in regard to wOmen's wages, and also
as recognition Of the need to prevent
any widening of the gap between mems
and wOmen's wages"
Equal Wage For Equal Work
The WOmen's Conference gave cor
dial thanks to its Advisory Committee
for the report presented to the dele
gates on progress made in enforcing
the principle of the rate for the job"
The report does not pretend to be com
plete, but as Miss Hancock said il
showed that the principle has now been
pretty widely accepted in industry.
Agreements are multiplying in which
women workers are assured of the
mems wage for equivalent work,
usually with the proviso that women
must be able to do the mans job with
out male supervision. Miss Hancock
said that trade unionists, both men
and women, must be vigilant to see
that no retrOgrade step is taken in
the postwar years: women must never
again be exploited as cheap or in
ferior labour."
Attention was directed at the Con-
ference to an aspect of the part-tine
work of women which will become in
creaSingly important as this form of
employment develops. Many thousands
of married women are now doing eS-
sential work not only in the war trades
but in retail stores. offices, banks and
commercial establishments which have
to keep going. Such women, as Mis-;
Hancock reminded her conference, are
, really doing two jobs, both of them
essential to the community. She
begged for Il better understanding of
this special problem.
Both the women themselves and
geSted must be prepared to adopt IA
give and take" policy. A woman
worker SO situated cannot always keep
strictly to the hours of a particular
establishment, especially if she has
children. "A woman who has been up
at night with Il sick child cannot be
expected to be at work on time the
next day. These women are making a
splendid and very necessary cOntribut-
ton to the war effort, but it must not
be asked of them that they think first
of the factory"
Really Doing Two Vital Jobs
She emphasized that both the jobs
these women are doing are vital to the
community, quoting the Chief lnSpec,
tor Factories in support of this plea
"A married woman with home, q
husband and children, already has Il
full-time job which is difficult to carry
out in these days. Yet thousands of
them are working long hours in fac
tories. They are trying to do two full
time jobs If they can carry on with
mere halliday week off the ordinary
factory hours they are achieving some
thing marvellous"
The woman delegates to the Confer
ence in which these questions were
brought to public attention did not try
to ma agnify the value of wOmen's work
What they did say, in accents of calm
conviction, was that women have es-
tablished their claim to Il share in the
economic life of the nation. by having
shared equally with men the tremen-
dous task of producing for the needs
of the war, they have an equal right
to employment after the war
And they sci forth this claim in Il
memorandum on postwar reconstruc-
ton which was unanimously adopted
and referred to the Il. L. c. General
COuncil