The creation of public opinion and the advent of a greater number of women on Municipal Councils and Health Committees is greatly needed to improve the conditions under which women officials work, and to support their reasonable demands.[2]
[Footnote 1: Full particulars of this can be obtained from the
Secretary, Sanitary Inspectors' Examination Board, Adelaide Buildings,
London Bridge.]
[Footnote 2: The above article considers under the term "Health Visitors" such women only as are serving under public Municipal Authorities. Unfortunately, since it gives rise to confusion, the name is also used in connection with officials privately appointed by various charitable institutions. These have no universally recognised standard of attainments: some of the so-called "Health Visitors" are without any qualifications, others, e.g., those employed by the Jewish Board of Guardians, are fully trained and do excellent work, comparable with that performed by Hospital Almoners. We hope, in a later volume of this series, to publish an article on their duties and position.[EDITOR.]
SECTION V
WOMEN IN THE CIVIL SERVICE
I
THE HIGHER GRADES: PRESENT POSITION AND PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE
The claim that women should be allowed to enter not only the lower but the higher branches of the Civil Service is being freely made at the present time. It is very generally felt that posts in which the holder has to execute judgment and to decide on administrative matters should be open to women as well as to men.
Many reasons are urged for admitting women more freely to a share in the responsible work of the Service, but the true basis of their claim lies in this—that the most successful form of government and the happiest condition for the governed can only be attained, in the State as in the family, when masculine and feminine influences work in harmony.
It is not, perhaps, widely known that women have already made their way into many branches of the Service and have done invaluable work therein. Perhaps the strongest argument that can be urged in favour of their admission into yet other branches of the Service will be found in the following brief survey of the appointments held and the work already done by them in various directions.