University, it has been recently necessary to rule that posts are
open to men as well as to women, unless it is specially stated to the
contrary. Thus, when the power is theirs, women also may be unwisely
tempted to erect a new form of sex barrier. To do so would be to
play into the hands of those enemies who are always raising the voice
against equal pay for equal work. The most suitable candidate for a
post is the one who should be selected, irrespective of sex. It is
this principle that women are endeavouring to establish. They must
do so by scrupulous fairness when the power is theirs: by making
themselves indisputably most fitted, when they are knocking at the
closed door.

One further topic needs discussion in this section--the continued
employment of married women in University posts. At present there
is no universal rule, and every case has to be judged on its merits.
Every lecturer who marries, can and ought to help to form the
precedent that continuance of professional work is a matter for her
own decision and is not one that concerns governing bodies. Already a
good many women, mothers as well as wives, have set the good example
and have established their own position, sometimes without question,
sometimes as the result of a difficult struggle. It is clear that
Universities, with their long vacations, and with their established
recognition of long absences for specified purposes, have less ground
than most employers to raise difficulties for married women. Thus the
holder of an A.K. scholarship may travel for a year, in order, by the
wise provision of the founder, to enlarge his or her mind and
bring back new experience to University organisation, research,
and teaching. The woman who fulfils the claims of sex, and to do so
journeys into the realm where life and death struggle for victory,
cannot thereby be unfitted for the profession for which she has