Women Workers in Seven Professions / A Survey of Their Economic Conditions and Prospects

by Unknown

The difference between the salaries of heads and assistants is in many cases greater than is desirable. Things being as they are, it is well that there should be some prizes to attract ability into the profession. On the other hand, a woman, whose best work is that of an assistant, should not be tempted to give it up for the salary of a headmistress. The assistant has the opportunity for closer and more personal touch with her girls, being intimately responsible for a smaller number; she has also better opportunities for working out the teaching of her subject and improving its technique. Education would gain if more of the ablest teachers, specially successful in one or other of these directions, were left in a position to continue this work, instead of feeling obliged to substitute for it the perhaps uncongenial task of organisation on a large scale, and that contact with visitors, organisers, inspectors, committees, and the public, which occupies the time of the heads of schools. The truth of this is, I am told, better appreciated in Germany than in this country.

Since local authorities took over the work, secondary teachers have gained considerably both as regards salaries and tenure. They are now, as a rule, better paid than elementary teachers, which was not always the case before 1902.

The tenure of the teacher varies in different schools. It is now less common than formerly for the appointment and dismissal of the staff to be entirely in the hands of the Headmistress; and assistants are thus safe-guarded against possible unfair and arbitrary action. The Headmistress,[6] however, has almost invariably a preponderating voice in the selection of her staff—as is right if the school is to be a living organism, not merely one of a series of machines with interchangeable parts; but the power of dismissal, if in her hands, is usually safe-guarded by the right of appeal to the appointing body—local authority or board of governors as the case may be. This right of appeal should be universal, and formal agreements should in all cases be made. (A model form of agreement has been drawn up by the Association of Assistant Mistresses.)

Pensions are not generally provided for secondary teachers; but a national pension scheme for them is under consideration, and there is hope that it will not be long delayed.

The poorer members of the teaching profession come under the National Health Insurance Act and are provided for by the University, Secondary and Technical Teachers' Insurance Society which already numbers eleven thousand members. This society also offers, in its Dividend Section, to those not compulsorily insured the opportunity for voluntary insurance against sickness. Association among secondary teachers has been considerably furthered by the desire to qualify for membership in the Insurance Society.

The distinctive associations for secondary mistresses are the Headmistresses' Association and the Association of Assistant Mistresses in Public Secondary Schools. These are concerned with general educational as well as professional problems, and their opinion is sought at times by the Board of Education with regard to proposed regulations. Each of them is represented on the recently established Registration Council, which has just reported (November 1913).

Membership of the Teachers' Guild of Great Britain and Ireland, of the College of Preceptors, and of the National Union of Teachers is also open to secondary teachers. In the last-named they may join hands with the great body of elementary teachers; in the first two organisations with private teachers also. There are also associations for teachers of certain subjects, the Ling Association and the Association of Teachers of Domestic Subjects. Membership of such bodies as the Historical, Geographical and various Scientific Associations is valuable because not confined to teachers.

Though the President of the Association of Assistant Mistresses has said that "there would be a strong feeling against definite organisation for the purpose of forcing up rates of remuneration,"[7] yet that body has investigated the scales of pay offered by local authorities, and writes in protest when posts are advertised at low rates.

Under present conditions the principle of general equality of income, not yet being considered as a serious proposition, it is surely economically right for the teaching profession to claim remuneration sufficient to give it a status corresponding to the worth and dignity of its work. Above all, women not entirely dependent on their earnings, and therefore in a position to resist under-payment, should not act as blacklegs and keep down the rate for others dependent for a livelihood on their occupation.

Under-payment for teachers means a narrower, more anxious life than should be theirs who are to live in the strongly electric atmosphere of a body of girls and young women and yet keep a calm serenity of spirit—a life less full than is essential for those who have to give at all times freely of their best.