THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER . (Part Two on Women’s Lib) By THELMA CARTWRIGHT It would be the easiest thing in the world for women today to become completely schizophrenic. They have always been expected to do two jobs at the same time if they happened to be married with children and worked outside the home too. Now they are being fed with so much con- flicting advice that it’s no. wonder the number of women in need of psychiatric treat- ment is rising rapidly. On the one hand women are _ being told that the earth is’ over-populated, that they are contributing to the destruction of the world by continuing to have children. Countless conferences and innumerable experts tell women to stop having babies in such num- bers. National Disgrace On the other hand govern- ment refuses her the means of controlling the number of children she bears. It has been a national disgrace in Canada that until a short time ago, birth control was illegal. Even now there is no well organized network of easily available birth control clinics open to women of all classes and in- come levels. And abortion is still unavailable to women who find themselves trapped by a pregnancy they do not want. It’s not only women’s biological role that is being called into question. Her ability as the best person to Members of Office and Technical Employees Union, Local 15 employed by Ladysmith and District Credit Union at Ladysmith, B.C. have approved terms for a_ first Agreement. The settlement provides for minimum salary increases of $100 per month by July 1, 1971, i.e. $60.00 per month increase retroactive to July 1, 1970 $15.00 per month increase effective January 1, 1971 $25.00 per month minimum inerease effective July 1, 1971. The settlement also provides for a 34 hour work week and three weeks vacation after three years service, plus one additional day’s vacation each year thereafter. eare for her children, once she has them, is constantly being challenged. Women who stay home with their children are told that they are depriving them of a good start in life by not sending them out, at the age of two or three to a good, progressive nursery school. Home Atmosphere Head start programs are often run for children who have never had the advantage of nursery school experience before entering public school — advantages that have long been evident to educators. But let a woman start to work and place her child in a nursery school environment and she is made to feel she is neglecting her child by depriving him of a normal home atmosphere. In view of these conflicting opinions many women today are in a serious state of doubt about their own identity and the place they should take in society. Must they feel guilty if they do stay home and raise a family or ought they to be spending every spare moment outside work at Women’s Liberation meetings? Two Extremes The answer, it seems to me, lies somewhere between these two extremes. The fact is that old attitudes and beliefs are dying and changing very quickly in society today. More and more young people are rejecting the life styles of their parents. They don’t want the DON'T TAKE FOR GRANTED CELLOPHANE PACKAGES CLEAN Just because food comes in a clean-looking package or cellophane wrapping, you can’t take for granted it is really “clean”. The wide- spread occurrence of salmo- nella infection, a form of food poisoning, has been traced at least in part to the increasing use of so-called “convenience” foods requiring little or no heating at home. Ironically, one of the justifi- eations claimed by the food industry, and: the Agricul- ture Department propagan- dists for processed foods with their extra cost, is their “cleanliness” in contrast to the i seth gery oe a peed Ned Yara 9 2 LD OY 2b 29" 09H OH HD eH 1D YD 07 er} er ber hee 1? XG mythical “open cracker bar- rel” of old-time grocery stores. But it turns out, cellophane can hide a multitude of orga- nisms. You know whether or not your hands and kitchen are clean when you prepare food. You don’t know the sani- tary conditions in the food factory. The facts are that over two million people get sick each year from contaminated food, and the chief culprit is the salmonella organism. Food poisoning is second only to colds as the most frequent eause of illness, government authorities say. HOPE YOUR SEASON'S BRIGHT AND JOLLY! isolation of the nuclear family. Young women and men, too, are beginning to refuse to fit . into the mold society would like to cast them in. Some of them are turning to life within a shared community where such things as domestic chores and child rearing are done by all members of the community whatever their sex. In this way, men, as well as women, may be liberated from the rigid definitions society has, up until now, laid upon their lives. Those of us who are, perhaps, too old and set to change our own lives can help by keeping an open mind on new patterns of living and by encouraging our own children to sample them. The very first step, though, is to stop scoffing at Women’s Liberation. Most of the things they. are saying need to be said. Most of them are true. SET] New statistics from the Federal Labor Department confirm the complaints of woman’s liberationists that females are squeezed out of the best jobs. = Although a rising percentage of the work force is female — 35.2 percent in 1969 -- women shared just 12.2 percent of the better-paying managerial jobs. Accompanying the growth in the female sector of the labor market have been significant increases in the percentage of women in clerical jobs. Five years ago 63.3 percent of the clerical jobs were held by women, today it’s 69.8. The service industries are almost 60 percent women. Manufacturing, the second largest sector of the industry, is 22.5 percent female. The biggest job market is the Lg Gb °° PIERRE PARIS & SONS : British Columbia’s UNIQUE Family Shoe Store Next to Woodward's at 51 West Hastings Street in the Heart of Downtown Vancouver Bis Ni Ni Ni Ss a iia Laid aa ai a ae ia ai an “DECK THE HALLS WITH BOUGHS OF HOLL. community, personal and business services group, in- cluding teaching and nursing. Women hold 59.6 percent of the jobs in that group. The population at large traditionally has slightly more women than men, 50.4 percent females in 1969. But one million more women work today than 10 years ago, compared with 900,000 additional men . 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