WOMEN IN POLITICS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 99, 23 October 1935, Page 10

WOMEN IN POLITICS

Though women have had the franchise in New Zealand since 1893, it is a remarkable fact that the Capital City has waited until 1935. for the first woman candidate for Parliament, arid has now found her in a daughter of Richard John Seddon, whose Government made the extension of the franchise. The long delay may be explained in part by the fact that it was not until 1919 that women became eligible as-candidates as well as. voters. But the other part of the explanation is that the full exercise of the franchise privileges did not at once make women as fully sensible of their rights and responsibilities. The traditions of many centuries of leaving the actual work of politics to men could not be changed as quickly as the law. Only gradually have women come to recognise that they have a definite contribution to offer no.t merely in voting and in influencing the views of candidates, but in adding to the common stock of knowledge and experience. As Mrs. Knox Gilmer pointed out last night, there is nothing that comes before Parliament that does not concern the women of the country, In their households they are directly affected by public finance, by unemployment, and, indeed, by everything relating to public welfare. The enthusiasm shown at Mrs. Gilmer's meeting was not only a tribute to a daughter of Mr. Seddon who has herself been most active ingood causes but a sign of the awakening political consciousness of the female half of the electorate. It is a sign that may be welcomed, for the public conscience which guides State affairs is, after all, neither male nor female, but a joint expression of both. ""