WOMEN SCIENTISTS

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 3 January 1931, Page 14

WOMEN SCIENTISTS

More than 30 women scientists took part in the TOOth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which opened at Bristol recently, states a London writer in '‘The Australasian. ’ ’ Seven women read papers on zoology, and six had papers on botany. Professor 'Dante Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, who has read papers at previous meetings of the association this year, with 'Mrs Williamson, contributed a paper on a fungus which grows on burnt ground, and which she found growing beside Virginia Water. A well-known woman plant pathologist spoke about a strawberry disease which she had been investigating for two years, and special interest attached to the debut of Miss Helena Harrison, who was the youngest spieakcr present, as she is only 20. A brilliant future is predicted for her, for she was the first woman to win the Earl Grey Memorial 'Fellowship at Armstrong College, Newcastle; and last year, on taking her degree of M.'Sc., she was appointed lecturer in agriculture botany at Armstrong College.

'Women’s serious interests are also well upheld in the realm of politics. .The repeated rumours of a forthcoming General Election are, perhaps, responsible for the great amount of hard work which is being done by women in different constituencies, and when the next election does come it is pretty certain that women candidates will be very much in evidence. Already a number of women have been allotted constituencies. An interesting candidate is 'Miss Thelma Gaza let, a young and energetic worker in the Conservative cause. Phe has already done a great deal of work on the London •County Council, and her brother is one of the most promising young men in Parliament. She has been adopted as Conservative candidate for East Islington, and in order, to have a proper grasp of Imperial matters she has preceded her political campaign by extensive travel, visiting »South Africa and Canada, as well as the United States. .Miss Irene Ward is another woman who is anxious to go into Parliament. She has already fought two elections at Morpeth, and in the next election she will oppose Miss Margaret Bondfield at Wall send, while North Hammersmith will be canvassed by the Hon. Alary Pickford. 'She is another ardent politician, who has already fought one campaign in 'Lancashire, but is not a whit deterred by her first failure in the realm of politics.