FEMINISM IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 953, 1 March 1917, Page 4

FEMINISM IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Mrs Beamish Lane, a delegate to last year's conference iu London of the British Dominions' Woman Suffrage Union, threw some interesting lights on the conditions of the women's movement i7i South Africa. There are in South Africa, she told her hearers, 26 societies of the Women's Enfranchisement Association. The women of that country, she said, are only now beginning to fight for their political freedom.

The South African progress of the suffrage movement, she says, has been retarded by wars, by grave internal social, ami political disturbances, by geographical conditions, ami by the great difference in the qualification for the franchise in the different provinces. The suffrage leagues in the towns have been helpful in hastening the enfranchisement of women in the municipalities. In Natal, all women possessing the male civic qualification can vote for the members of the Municipal Council; and by an ordinance of that body they also have a right to sit on municipal bodies and upon hospital boards. Eschowe (Zululand) was the first town to elect a woman on the local board, and Mnritzburg elected the first woman town councillor—Mrs Theodore Woods —who was also elected to the Hospital Board, in 1914, a Labour majority in the Transvaal Provincial Council gave women the municipal vote on a three months' residential qualification, ami also the right to sit on the town council and hospital boards. A Women's Municipal Association was at once formed, to educate women in municipal matters and secure their return as councillors, In 1915, three women were elected.

In Johannesburg alone there are 40 women'h societies. In Johannesburg and Maritzburg women have been nppointed to attend courts in eases that concern women and children. In Durban women sit on the .Juvenile Advisory Board. In Cape Town there are women doing excellent work as police patrols, and in the Transvaal Dr Anna Cleaver has been appointed Assistant-medical Inspector of Schools. In 101.1 ;i test case was brought forward in Capo Town to enable women to practise ns lawyers, but the .ludge do cided thai the Union Parliament- musl pass rin amending statute before Hint right could be gained. The actual Achievements of the women in South Africa may appear small, liut the almost universal awakening to (ivic ami politi cal responsibilities is an augury of greal hope for the future. Mrs Lane con siilors.