NEW DOCTOR M.P.

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 100, 30 April 1938, Page 18

NEW DOCTOR M.P.

"WE WOMEN ARE TOUGH"

A BUSY LIFE PLANNED

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, April 9. Afier her exciting victory in. the Fulham by-election, Dr. Edith Summerskill, the new Labour M.P., was able to take her ease, while her husband answered the telephone every few seconds and her two children rushed for the postman and openejl the hundreds of telegrams.

"Everybody is asking me the same question about iiovf I am going to manage to take care of my husband;children, house, and. medical practice now that I'm an M.P.;" .she said. "But I assure you that my husband is quite capable of taking care of himself, and the children have, an excellent Scottish nurse, and all I myself need do is to readjust my working hours.

"Patients who used to visit me in the afternoon > will now come in the morning. Some may have to be looked after by my partner, who happens to be my husband. All this talk about, women not being able to work as hard as men is absurd. We women are tougher than men, and we live longer! What we must learn is to organise bur work and delegate it wherever possible." Her Welsh husband, Dr. Jeffrey Samuel, putting down the telephone receiver for more than the hundredth time, enthusiastically agreed with, her. NOT DELICATE CREATURES. "It's time we ceased to believe in the myth that women are delicate creatures," he said. "The average working woman with no household conveniences puts as much strength into her daily work as a navvy. And she stands up to a supreme physical strain which no man ever undergoes— childbirth." Dr. Samuel is a warm supporter of equality between men and women. "I did, '■'however'i refuse to give up my owriV'ria'me '. when we married," he added with a laugh. ; . PARLIAMENTARY PRECEDENT. The position, is that Dr.-Summerskill will be the first married woman to sign the book under her maiden name when she takes her seat in the House. But while she has continued to use her maiden name for professional medical purposes Dr. Summerskill has done so in politics almost by accident. Her first election campaign was at Putney in 1934, when she stood against Mr. M. R. A. Samuel. The Home Secretary was consulted, and to confusion he advised that she should be nominated as Edith Summerskill. While Dr. Summerskill fought her campaign on domestic issues and expects to concentrate on measures which will reduce 'heavy household labour for women, she is also deeply interested in international affairs. The most exciting part of the election, she said, was the towing of her car by her supporters, with police on the running board, after the declaration.