THE FEMININE MOVEMENT.

Northern Advocate, 17 March 1913, Page 2

THE FEMININE MOVEMENT.

The decision of the Royal Geographical Society to admit women to its fellowship on the same terms as men is significant of the tendency of life in London to-day. A few years ago a similar motion was rejected contemptuously, to-day it is carried by an overwhelming majority. The man who has led the movement for the admission of the ladies is Lord Curzcn, champion of the Anti-Suffrage Party. Lord Curzon's suggestion caused much foreboding in some quarters. It will undoubtedly be followed by the opening up of other similar royal societies, as, for instance, the Royal Colonial, to both sexes. And why not? No one can deny that women—for instance Mrs Bullock Workman, Lady Lugard and Miss Mary Kingsley—have in recent years done exceedingly valuable geographical and Imperial work. The old policy of shutting women out from a large part of the men's lives is hopelessly breaking down in West London. Take, for instance, our clubs. Thirty years ago no woman crossed the steps of the average club. Lady novelists, when they wished to picture man in the depths of dissipation and sybaritic enjoyment, pictured him revelling in luxury in his club. Then one or two of these much-abused establishments began to open their portals on one afternoon a week to lady visitors. This proved so successful that a few of the clubs opened dining-rooms for lady guests. Then mixed clubs for men and women sprang up. To-day some of the women's own clubs surpass, for Siimptuousness, those of their husbands. I suppose that the reformers will next attack the banquets in which ladies are bidden to sit up in the gallery and watch their men folk eat and drink and make speeches below; Good speed to them! I never attend such a dinner —and there are still many of them held in London — without feeling very much ashamed of my kind. —"Daily Mail."