Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 1929. THE WOMEN’S VOTE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 104, 2 April 1929, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 1929. THE WOMEN’S VOTE.

A feature of the British elections to take place very shortly will be tfie vote of tfie women and it is a point of interest to winch political party the majority will look. Ine importance of .tneir vote is not being overlooked by the party organisers who are striving to win as many as possible to their particular cause, recognising that in this voting power lies the defeat or victory of many candidates. The part that tfie women of the United States played in the recent presidential election is discussed by a writer in a contemporary publication. ’ Governor Smith’s dpfeat, because it was so crushing, may be regarded as a brand new yardstick by which it becomes possible for the first time to form some clear notion not only of the tremendous power of the women’s vote, but of the psychological stuff of which that vote is made, says the writer. In the decisively feminine quality of it there lies an interesting forecast of the future. Certainly it gives an answer to those who predicted that the nineteenth amendment ■would never have any real significance in American politics because women would vote the way their husbands told them. Erom the writer’s analysis of the voting in this election we learn that a very large proportion of the women eligible to vote exercised their franchise, so that it is, reasonable to conclude that of the several millions who will be added to the British rolls this year the majority will be found taking more than a passing interest in the elections. Hence, it' is easily understood that the three chief parties in the field are so anxious to woo the female voters whose decision will be awaited with such interest in one of the most important issues which has faced the people of Britain. Throughout the United States there are women’s organisations the counterpart of which are to be found in the Old Country, and if one follows the argument ,developed by the writer referred' to it would not be surprising if these various bodies voted en masse for one particular set of candidates, irrespective of what their husbands may desire, for in the American presidential election there was a sharp cleavage between the sexes. Whatever the result may be of the British elections, the fact remains that the vote of the women will

play a very big part and the issue cannot be gauged with any degree of accuracy at this stage.