WHERE WOMEN LEGISLATE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 95, 24 April 1907, Page 7

WHERE WOMEN LEGISLATE.

r TJa© women .of Finland, who have jast anticipated the ajmbition of some Stem Zealand women by the election of nineteen of their number to Parliament ha*:e long enjoyed professional and social rights .exceeding those of any of their sisters in Europe. Mr Harry: de Windt, the well-known traveller, was greatly charmed during a # v,isit to their country with the Finnish women, and "in Ms book, "Finland As It Is," he states that they have reached a stage of emancipation as yet unknown in any other country. When he wrote, several years ago, they had no political rights, "but they are frequently employed in the Government service, wMle as regards mental and even physical development, there is very little difference here between the sexes." He found women employed as clerks at the banks and railway stations, women digging and hoeing in the fields, and even women sweeping streets in the. towns, or working as stone-masons and carpenters. " Indeed, there is hardly any kind of manual labour that a Finnish woman will not turn her hand to, nor any profession from which she is barred, save perhaps the Army and the Church." At the University, women attend the .same classes as men, and not a few of them have taken degrees in science, art, and medicine. And with all 3ier general participation in what are often considered men's affairs, the Finnish woman Mr de Windt affirms, has never lose a whit of feminine refinement and charm. She is devoted to her home and children, and " Blue Stockings" .are hardly ever met with. Most, of the Finnish women are -well educated, musical, and artistic, are conversant with two or three languages, and keep themselves remarkably well posted on all home and foreign topics of the time. In connection with their recent entry into Parliament it is interesting to ( be reminded, by a writer in an English paper, that our Saxon mothers enjoyed th& self-same

privilege which'some of their descendants seek to-day. "In Wightred's great council of" 694, ladies c-r birth md quality took their seats as a matter of right—indeed, the decrees of that council were signed by five ladies, is well as by the male members—and t is not likely that the members signed the decrees without having had something to say in debate. 3' In the •eigns, of Henry IV., and Edward 1., ibesses were summoned to Parlianent, and apparently it was not until ;he time of Edward 111. that the first step was taken to exclude peeresses :rom the House, by making them be •epresented by their proxies: •