The following table shows the distribution of apprenticeships among young men and women invarious occupations in May 1966:
Apprenticeships for: | Male Females '
Scienubiste: and technologists .. Draughtsmen = “yt inte | 17,450 | 350 Other technicians bles is Pansies idling toe | 160 Clerical and office staff Sy lg vant | 3,150 | 1,410 : Other administrative staff ue oe « | 3,300 | 620
Skilled craft workers ag oe - | 271,650 | 5,30 |
source: Ministry of Labour Gezette, January 1LYO/ Sp ae ae The table shows how extraordinarily limited is the access to apprenticeships accarded to girls in the occupations covered. At school, girls have as good a performance at "0" level standards as boys, ind vet when they come to leave school only some 7 per cent of girls enter apprenticeshios (hairdressing predominantly) compared with 43 per cent of boys. Some 49 per cnet of male manual workers in industry are classified a5 skilled, but only 29 per cent of familes = 19 per cent if the clothing and textile industries are ex-= eluded, In Engineering and electricsl goods manufscture nearly 580,000 skilled men are employed but only 13,200 skilled women (out of a female labour force of nearly 340,000): and yet during the lest war women were without difficulty trained to do many kinds of work traditionally performed by men, Women have limited opportunities where other types of training are concerned. In 1966 soma 536,000 men in employment were released by their employers during working hours to take part-time day courses at grant-aided establishments, but the corresponding figure for women was only 87,000. Not surprisingly, therefora, women's access to the better=paid jobs is restricted. The Ministry of Labour's occupational anelysis for retail distribution in May 1967 covered labour force of over a quarter of a million; women cut-mimbered men by 3 to 1, but male managers outnumbered women managers by nearly ¢ to 1. Only one of the 319 works managers interviewed in our workshop relations survery ws a woman, end only 10 of the 12l personnel officers. Of the 183 full-time trade union officers interviewed from six trede unions, only one was a woman, In industry generally, women comprise only 5 percent of minagers and 2.5 per cent of scientists and technologists. In some fields there are mch better opportunities for women, notably teaching, the non-industrial civil service and some professions, including of course nursing; but these do not compensate for the comparative lack of opportunity over much of the employment field. There are some obvious practical reasons why opportunities for women are restricted. Managements are reluctant to give expensive treinine to women when the likelihood is so high that they will shortly marry and lesve their service,
A married woman returning to the employment ficsld after a dozen years' ab-
sence will not have the same chance of promotion as other employees who have
not been absent at all. Married women with family responsibilities often
cannot work the full normal hours of a fectory or office. However, these
practical obstecles cennot by themselves account for the present state of
affairs. They are reinforced by conservatism and prejudice among men, both
employers and trade unionists, which foster the unwarrented assumption that
nothing can be done. This assumption is sometimes accepted by women them
selves. Young wome first enteri ng employment are often reluctant to commit
themselves to lengthy treining when they can pet hicher pay in undemanding
work, because they see employment as a brief period preceding marrisge end
bringing up a family. However, employment firures show that this short-term
view is increasingly unrealistic; employ ant of women and girls has fone up
by some 1 per cent in the last de cad e (compe ared with less then 6 per cent
for men} and mich of it is eseccounted fie by a remarkable incresse in the
mumbsr of married women taking up jobs when their families become less
dependent,
The existing situation if prolonged will pive rise to increasingly acute
social preblems. Many more mixed schools ere being established. Girls who
do as well as boys at school will went the opportunities for training
available to boys. Fore and more eble girls ere going to universities
Many married women who return to full=<time or part-time employment have,
through lack of training, to take jobs which are below their capacity.
In economic terms, there is a still more important problem. Lack of skilled
labour hes constantly applied a brake to our economic expansion since the
war, and yet the capacity of women to do skilled work hes been neglected,
This becomes more serious as the proportion .of women in the lebour force
increases; and the failure to trein sufficient girl school-leeavers now will
contime to have ill effects a long time ahead, Forecasts of > the size of the
working population indicate that there will be = very limited increese be-
tween now and 1981. Women provide the only substantial new source from
which extra labour, and especially skilled lebour, can be drawn during this
period, t is essentisl that in the development of training over the next
few years ell those with responsibility in the field - education authorities,
the Youth Employment Service, industrial training boards, the Department
of Employment and Productivity, employers and trede unions = should prasp
the opportunity to bring about a revolution in attitudes and in practical
performance so far as the training of women is concerned,
Donovan Report: pp. 90/92