WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21596, 14 September 1933, Page 3

WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT

MEMBER AT LAST DOMINION TAKES THE PLUNGE BY LAURA BUNTING It is a strange thing that although New Zealand was the first country to give women the voto, it has allowed other countries to outstrip it in placing them in Parliament. It would seem as though the shock of such a progressive step had been altogether too much for it, and it had to stop and take a long breath before plunging anew. And at last—long last —that plunge has been taken, and Lyttelton has elected Mrs. E. R. McCombs to sit in Parliament. To those who pioneered the way, the history of women's franchise in New Zealand has been disappointing. They pioneered in the hope that the new voters would constitute a compact body of support for social reforms. Women, without doubt, owe the vote to this impelling force. It was the W.C.T.U. which. organised the franchise movement in 1866, and carried on the work of former advocates with such systematic vigour that success ultimately arrived. Indirect Influence Women* have gonsoled themselves, when surprise has been expressed at the fact that there were no women members of Parliament in New Zealand, by saying that their indirect influence was almost as powerful as their direct influence would have been. Indirectly, they have been responsible for a great deal of social welfare legislation, more particularly protective legislation for women and children. It is quite true that indirectly they have been able to get useful legislation passed—often with the backing and advice of leading men (such as the late Sir Robert Stout, the late Sir John Hall and others of outstanding ability), but how much more might they not have done had they been thete in person in the House? The position of our unemployed women, for one thing, might have been a very , different thing had there been a few women members. That indirect influence has not yet achieved women police, nor has it achieved women jurors, nor has it altered the law in the matter of the nationality of married women. It is generally recognised that in the field of social welfare women have done magnificent work. When it comes to work in the political field, however, their interest in some extraordinary way fades out. Women might achieve places on hospital boards, on education boards, on city councils, yet until yesterday Parliament was as far beyond them as the moon, for the simple reason that women did not have faith enough in their own sex to wish to be represented by them. An All-round Politician.

Up to the present, most of the women who have stood for Parliament have made their appeal on the ground that they represented women's interests particularly. It has to be remembered, however, that a member of Parliament has to deal with many questions vital to the country as a whole. The wise woman who enters Parliament should see to it that she qualifies as a good general politician, ready to take her part in the wider, all-round field of politics. When votes were granted to women in 1893 it was regarded a a a revolutionary step, and all kinds of dangers to the home, the nation and society in general were prophesied. Yet New Zealand has weathered the menace and might have weathered it better had the country taken a few more forward steps earlier. To-day something of the same kind has been said of putting women in Parliament. Those who really believe such things can take heart by watching the cheerful manner in which Britain is bearing up under the burden of her women members. Each election time she has put more women into Parliament, and she is withstanding the greatest economic and financial storms that any country has ever been called upon to face, with an undaunted heart. It is a cheerful augury for New Zealand, and a shining example of how to steer through the stress of circumstances.