Page:Women Wanted.djvu/245

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THE OPEN DOOR IN COMMERCE
225

The troubled French minister was probably right when he complained that some of his new office force were quite useless. But there is a Federation of University women in England with perfectly good University degrees attesting mathematical proficiency. They say, however, that they cannot live on less than a minimum wage of three pounds a week. Awhile ago in Italy a group of women accountants were asked by the Administration of Public Instruction to replace men called to the front. With exactly the same academic licenses as men, they were nevertheless offered but two thirds men's pay. And they declined the proffered positions. Nor is it only England or Italy or Russia or France that presents this ratio between the wages of men and those of women in the business offices. The first resolution adopted by the new Women's Association of Commerce of America was one demanding equal pay for equal work. Eventually the Women's Association of Commerce and the Financial Centre for Women and the École Pratique de Haut Enseignement Commercial may succeed in cultivating in the commercial world a taste for a higher type of employé than the little peaches of the past. But for the present it is the handicap that the business woman in routine office positions has to accept. And there is no Trade Union in commerce to care. Can you manage to give equal work on two thirds man's pay?

If you can, this is the hour of your opportunity. The women's battalions are with every month of the