Women And The World

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 147, 16 March 1940, Page 15

Women And The World

“The last twenty years have seen an immense change in the position of women in England. Women now have the entry into all the professions and the civil service.

“There are SO,OOO civil servants, 181,000 teachers, 200,000 nurses and 30,000 social workers, doctors, architects, and so on. Nowadays 80 per cent, of all girls of eighteen to twenty are earning their own livings and onethird of all the women of the countryare self-supporting. “The change in this war from the last is very striking. In 1914 it took a long time for this country to realize the immense reserve of strength, help and power it had in women. They were not used as munition workers till 1015 and not in the auxiliary services to the Army, the Navy and the Air Force or the land army till 1917. “If I had the temerity to say one thing to the women who now strive so earnestly to end war it is that they should think of the problem in constitutional terms. Then you will begin to see its true nature. But constitutional problems have hitherto been regarded as man’s special job.

“Many people say that women are Incapable of understanding or handling constitutional questions. I don't believe it. I can see no difference between the mind that is in man and the mind that is in woman, though each sex has special aptitudes of its own.

“So if you want to end war give some steady thought to that aspect of government which has been treated hitherto as man’s peculiar preserve. When the constructive reason of man is combined with the love and intuition of women, the reign of the dragon of war over mankind will begin to draw to its close.” —The Marquis of Lothian.