THE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16233, 19 May 1916, Page 6

THE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT.

MISS PANKHUBSrS TIEWS. Evert seat in the concert chamber of the Town Hall was filled last night, when Miss Adela Pankhurst delivered a lecture on "The Real Meaning of the Woman's Movement." The lecturer, who received a most enthusiastic reception, commenced her address by outlining what she described as the bad social and industrial conditions in lingland, which had pressed so hardly on women that they had b&3n forced to organise in order to emphasise and bring to the attention of the Government the urgent need of improvement. Woman labour, she said, was being exploited in factories and mines in a manner which was utterly detrimental to the life of the nation. The woman's movement was not merely the reflection of a desire to get votes and obtain the right to sit in Parliament, but to obtain the power to improve the desperate condition of the working woman, to ensure that the women and children of the nation should have the right to live fuller, more decent and cultured lives. Women in England did not wish to merely obtain votes for the sake of voting, for, after all, the main end of woman lay in the improvement of her home and the care of her children, but they wished to enter politics to safeguard that home-life from the evils now besetting it, which work could never be accomplished by merely stopping within four waifs. Miss Pankhurst went on to describe the effect of war conditions upon the women and homes of the nation. The speaker concluded with an appeal to all the women of a land where woman enjoyed such privileges and such favourable working conditions as obtained in Australia and New Zealand to pat forth every effort to further the movement which meant so much to the womanhood and the future life of the whole nation.