WOMEN AND DIVORCE

Evening Star, Issue 14497, 24 February 1911, Page 8

WOMEN AND DIVORCE

The Women's Co-operative Guild (England) has 520 branchesand 25,897 members. To these 25,897 members were recently submitted a series of questions as to the Divorce Law, and the replies to this interrogatory were read before the Divorce Commission. No less than 414 branches, with 22.895 members, favored the g van ting of divorce on the same teuns as it is now granted to tho husband. Only three branches, with 156 members, declared themselves opposed to equality. In replying to the question as to cheapening divorce. 19,194 voted in favor, 5,246 voted against. These answers, however. ;ue what might have been expacied. Far more serious are the answers to the detailed questions as to the enlargement, if tho'grounds for divorce which were put to 124 women, who held or have iiehl oilkial positions in the Guild. Ten of thes*. were, against divorce altogether, but the voting upon the other grounds for divorce was as follows : Should divorce be granted for— Yes. No. Kefusal to maintain wife and familv 91 12 Insanity 93 14 Desertion 96 7 L'rueltv 100 2 .Mutual consent 82 12 This last reply is staitling indeed. .Marriage dissoluble by consent ha.< hitherto not been regaided as an ideal of English womanhood. The fact that 82 out of 94 picked women should have returned a deliberate opinion in favor of the conversion of the indissoluble marriage tie into a civil contract, terminable by mutual consent, suggests some grave speculations as to what woman will reallv tin when she gets the vote.—W. T. Stead.