We are offering special training opportunities to the young widow of the soldier or officer.

In special branches of work our opportunities are very much greater and better.  Medicine is one of the professions in which women have very specially made good.  Better training opportunities have opened, more funds have been raised to enable women of small means to get medical education, and the Queen herself gave a portion of a gift of money she received, for this purpose.  Most medical appointments are open to them now and they have been urged by the great medical bodies to enter for training in still greater numbers in the different Universities, and have done so.

More research is being done by them in every department.  In professions such as accountancy, architecture, analytical chemistry, more and more women are entering.  In the banking world women have done very satisfactory work, and one London bank manager, asked to say what he thought of prospects after the war, says he is very strongly of opinion it will continue to be a profession for women after the war.  This manager thinks the question of higher administrative posts being open to women will depend entirely on themselves and their work, and what they prove capable of achieving and holding, they will certainly have.

In the war, one profession, in particular, has come nearer to finding its rightful place than ever before—­the teaching profession.  Their salaries which, in too many cases, were disgracefully low, have been raised.  The woman teacher has shown her capacity in new fields of work in the boys’ schools, but it is in another sense that their profession, both men and women, but very specially the women, have achieved a very real gain in the war.

The teachers of the country have done a very great deal of war work of every kind.  The National Register of 1915 was largely done by their labour.  The War Savings Associations and Committees owe a great debt to teachers and inspectors, who are the backbone of the movement, headmistresses are asked constantly to help in securing trained women, taught to work in Hospitals on their holidays, on land, in organizing supplies and comforts in canteens and clubs, and more and more are put on official Committees in their towns and districts.

It means the teacher is finding the status and position the teachers in their profession ought to have in their communities, and the war has done a great deal towards achieving that desirable end, though there is still a good deal to be done.

In the Government Service there has undoubtedly been great opportunities for women, especially those of organizing, executive and secretarial ability—­and in many cases the payment in higher posts is identical for men and women, and higher posts, if they have the ability, are freely given to women and the whole position of women in our Civil Service is improved.  In the very highest posts, such as those of Insurance and Feeble-minded Commissioners, etc., women before the war received the same salaries as men.