NOTABLE WOMEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20475, 29 January 1930, Page 7

NOTABLE WOMEN.

THEIR PLACE IN HISTORY.

A discussion has lately taken place about famous women of the day, not so much with regard to their present position, but with regard to the future. Many people who are well known now will be forgotten perhaps a century hence, but there are some women whose present achievements will undoubtedly influence the generations to come. A list has been compiled which reflects the concensus of opinion. It includes the names of some dozen women whose merits, it is believed, should be as greatly regarded a hundred years hence as now, states an English writer.

In the world of politics, for instance, Viscountess Astor, Miss Margaret Bondfield, and the Duchess of Atholl stand out clearly—Lady Astor as tho first woman M.P., Miss Bondfield as the first woman Cabinet Minister, and the Duchess as a politician of distinction, whoso greatest work is probably still to come. Civil aviation has been helped forward tremendously by Lady Heath, Lady Bailey and the Duchess of Bedford. These three women have helped to change the whole general attitude toward air travel. At first we were inclined to regard all air travel as only fit for military experts. Later we became familiarised with. the idea of travelling in aeroplanes under the guidance of skilled pilots. Now women quite calmly regard the possibilities of being pilots themselves.

Dame Mary Scbarlieb will nevejr be forgotten in the medical world, and Viscountess Rhondda would be included in any list of notable women, not only because of her work for other women, but because of her capabilities as director of many industrial concerns. She is, _in fact, our only big woman in3ustrialist. She directs her collieries with all the energy which she exerts as vice-chairman of the Time and Tide Publishing Company. In the artistic world, Clare Sheridan's sculptures will very probably live, and so will the* paintings of Damo Laura Knight. As for the stage this particular list chooses Mrs. Patrick Campbell and Miss Clemence Dane as the two women most likely to get posterity's recognition. Clemence Dane has so far written only one really successful play, but her " Bill of Divorcement" ran for months when it was first produced in 1921, and it had a successful revival. All London flocked to dsee Mrs. Patrick Campbell in " The Matriarch." The critics say that another hundred years hence people will speak of Mrs. Patrick Campbell's interpretation of the Matriarch as people now speak of performances by. Mrs. Siddons.