WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 138, 7 December 1918, Page 8

WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT

THEIR OWN VIEWS SIR FRANCIS BELL'S REPLY, j A deputation of representative women waited on Sir Francis Bell tbig afternoon to place before him their views with regard to the admission of women to Parliament. , ' 1 Mr. Downie Stewart said the women | were most conoerned about the vote in the Council, and hoped it would not be too late to ■ remedy the position. Miss N. E. Cpad said the fact that the Speaker of the House of Representatives had ruled that the clause was in order, the Council having after wards rejected it , on a technicality, would create an im,- ' pression amongst the women that the ! Council was evading the question. The Council's argument that women should confine themselves to the home need not be discussed. The services of women were indispensable in a national crisis, and in ordinary avocations of pease they had also taken ' an increasing part. Changes were needed to meet this. For example, the conditions of women's work required to be regulated. Questions in which women were interested, such as housing and town-planning, could be dealt with more effectively if women had seats in Parliament. It had been said that women did not desire seats in Parliament. That might be true, but it was also true that many men did not want seats, and would not have them as a gift. That was no reason for depriving all of the sex of this right. Some ,women aleo did not wish to see members of their sex in Parliament, but all views should be considered. On the mere abstract grounds of justice, women could also claim the right to more direct representation of their ideals, which tiey claimed were at least as high, or higher than those of men. If women had ability, as it had been shown they had, there was no moral right to exchid# them, and there shonld be no legal right.. Miss Nicholls speaking on behalf of University women, said universities had demonstrated how beneficial the co-oper-ation of men and women could be. Women had prepared themselves, - and it was surely time that a forward step was made. ' ■ Miss Edith Howes said that women who were engaged with the education of children were 1" convinced of the need for stating clearly the woman's point of view. /,.-•. ■ ■ : . (Proceeding.)