WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3937, 27 August 1929, Page 64

WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT.

By

Esther.

They are but a small party, the re : elected and the newly elected women members of the House of Commons. Com sidering the predominance of women voters at the last election it might have been expected that a good many- more of the women candidates would have found seats. But the force of tradition, which teaches that public affairs are department, is still strong, and women candidates would have less strong organisations working for their return. But though the group of women members is a small one, it is strong in person? ality and brains. Many- of its members have made their mark in other depart? ments than politics. And one of them, Miss Margaret Bondfield, has been appointed Minister of Labour, thus set? ting an era in the advancement of women by becoming the first woman Cabinet Minister.

Miss Bondfield has a long record of public activity behind her. Towards 40 years ago she was a shop assistant, and as a member of the shop-assistants' union took her first steps in trades union politics. Since then she has been a constant worker in the Labour cause, has gradually won positions of more responsibility, and has attended Labour conventions and congresses at Berlin, Paris, ashington, Moscow, and Geneva, She was the first woman trade union delegate to the trade union congress, and was chosen first woman president of the General Trades Union Council, It will be remembered that she held a Government position under Mr Ramsay MacDonald’s first Government in 1924, but not with Cabinet rank. Now she hac attained the rank of member of the inner council which sways national affairs. She should lie well fitted for the duties of her position. She has a good practical knowledge of economies, and her life and work have given her full insight into the needs and aspirations of the working classes. Now she has an opportunity for showing her * . P. owers _' that is, if the present Administration has an ordinarily long lease of office, as it now seems probable it will have.

Miss Ellen H ilkinson and Miss Susan Lawrence have now been a good many years in Parliament as Labour members, and both have a record of much active political and social work. Two medical women are among the newly elected Labour members. Dr Ethel Bentham and Dr Marion Phillips. Both are women of mark who have been active in social work and have good insight into social problems and needs. Miss Jenny Lee, the youngest of the group, has still her career before her; but she has shown her possession of unusual general ability and force of character in her educational career, and in the rapidity with which she has come to the front in Labour ranks. Miss E. Picton-Turberville, one of the new Labour members, has won distinction as a writer, and is well known for her social work. Miss Eleanor Rathbone has a recognised place as a writer on economics. Her chief work. “The Disinherited Family.” a powerful plea for family endowment, examines exhaustively the needs of the family in all small wageearning classes. including smaller salaried ones. This book was the subject of three or four articles of mine a few years ago. If the Labour Party continues long in office we shall no doulit see some measure of family aid or endowment brought into force in Britain. Lady Cynthia Mosley, the aristocratic Labour member, is the daughter of the late Marquess Curzon, and by tradition should be sitting with the three titled Conservative women members, the Duchess of Athol 1, Lady Iveagh, and Lady Astor. But politics to-day afford some piquant incon-

entities. Lady Cynthia's elder sister, Baroness Ravensfield, as peeress in her own right, would sit in the House of Lords if peeresses in their own right were not still disqualified by their sex from political equality. Very likely a measure enabling such peeresses to take their place besides men peers will be passed before long. I don’t think the abolition of the House of Lords is a question on the practical horizon of the majority of the present staid and moderate Labour Administration and its supporters; but, of course, it comes within the platform of the extreme Socialists. At all events if the spectacle of one sister upholding Conservative measures in the aristocratic Chamber, and the other, as Labour member of the lower Chamber, opposing them and advocating others that are anathema to the Conservative Party, would be piquant and interesting. But in Britain difference of political conviction seldom causes personal bitterness, and the bond of kinship need not be broken by such differences. At all events it is less unusual and much less unfortunate for sisters or brothers to fight jn opposite political camps than for husband and wife to do so. Lady Cynthia shares the political opinions and ideals of her husband, Sir Oswald Mosley, who after beginning as a Conservative has progressed through the status of an Independent member to Labour views, and now has been given a minor position under the Government. Miss Megan Lloyd George, the sole Liberal woman member, is well known to have been an able assistant of her father.

Lady Astor has long been prominent in the House of Commons; a lively and picturesque figure, showing her American birth perhaps in her occasional unconventionalities of behaviour. She is warmly interested in social reform and all that concerns women and children. Sense of human needs is a force drawing together women of-all political parties. The immediate political future is full of interest ; so many vital questions concerning so deeply the weal or woe of millions of the inhabitants of Britain have to be fought out. And though we can scarcely expect women members to l>e in the front ranks of the parliamentary combat, they will certainly contribute their full share of political thought and earnestness.

What a revolutionary change there has been in the political status of Britain since suffragette days! Equal franchise, women in Parliament for many years past, several of whom have been returned at successive elections, this testifying to the general satisfaction in their political capacity. And now a woman Cabinet Minister.

It is stated that the last elections were the most decorously dull ever held m Britain. So the “ flapper ” vote did nothing to cause disorder. It has been • the general experience that the entry of women into the political field has sobered and refined election contests and political meetings. I remember how about the time of the passing of woman suffrage in New Zealand some elderly conservative opponents drew lurid pictures of the disorder and indecorum that would result from uneducated and irresponsible women, particularly those of the lowest social grade, having to give. The conservative minded might concede that women property owners might fairly have a vote; but women of all social ranks—never!—or perdition to the country and destruction, of the sanctity of the home. Well, time has given the lie to all such gloomy forebodings; and we may hope that it will also give the lie to many prognostications of evil to result from further advances in equalising and humane legislation.