Woman On Council

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31279, 27 January 1967, Page 2

Woman On Council

(By

BETTY VERNON)

The half-a-million people who pour into the city of London to work each day include 195,000 women. In the last 10 years there has been a steady increase in the number of women working in the “Square Mile,” as the City the financial centre of Britain, the Commonwealth and the whole sterling area—is often described.

Most of these women work in insurance, banking, finance and other professions, and the distributive trades. Many have reached the top in their ehosen jobs. But although the city is crowded and bustling on working days, fewer than 5000 men and women actually live within its boundaries. They, and about 10,000 others with property qualifications, are entitled to vote in the local government elections. The day-t&day government of the City is in the hands of the historic Court of Common Council. The court, which dates from the early Middle Ages, is the administrative unit of the London City Corporation. It is composed of 159 councilmen and 25 aidermen—the aidermen being elected for life—and is presided over by the Lord Mayor. For the first time in its long history, when the council meets in Guildhall this year, there will be among its members a woman councillor. Lady Dorothy Donaldson. Since 1920, when women won the vote in Britain, most local councils have had women councillors and aidermen.

But history was made in the City by Lady Donaldson, wife of a High Court judge and mother of three children, when she successfully stormed the all-male preserve of the court and won a seat in a recent by-election. WIDE CONTROL

The City maintains some distinguished schools. It also

has famous colleges of further education, with boy and girl students —among them the City of London College, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

The city corporation runs its own police force, in which women serve; it is responsible, as the local health authority, for the inspection of the 7,000,000 tons of foodstuffs brought annually by ships into the port of London; and it exercises powers affecting traffic control, town planning, housing and redevelopment. All these are matters which affect women as much as men.

In housing, for example, the Barbican redevelopment scheme is a notable achievement. This new residential area, costing £31,000,000, will provide homes, shops, schools, a theatre and concert hall, gardens and open spaces in the heart of the City. “When young families begin to flourish in the Barbican, matters such as play centres, nurseries, infant welfare clinics and living amenities for women generally will urgently demand that a woman’s voice should be heard in the council,” Lady Donaldson said recently. WELFARE WORK

Welfare is another of the council’s civic responsibilities. The personal health and welfare both of young and old fall to the council’s care, as well as the upkeep of a variety of charitable institutions. On these subjects Lady Donaldson is well qualified to speak. As a young woman she trained as a State-registered nurse, and became a nursing superintendent of the British Red Cross. She is a counsellor for the Marriage Guidance Council.

Lady Donaldson's elegant home in the City is still the centre of activity for her three children—a boy of 16 and two daughters, one 18 and the other 20. In her spare lime, Lady Donaldson is a yachting enthusiast, and races a solo-class dinghy. FOLLOWING MOTHER Although her election to the council will mean even less spare time in future, Lady Donaldson is delighted about it. For one thing, she is following in the footsteps of her mother who, at the age of 75, is still involved in rural local government after service of a quarter of a century. But above all, Lady Donaldson is glad that her election was a decisive victory—she polled 300 votes, to the 80odd votes, each, of her opponents.