WOMEN’S MOVEMENT

Thames Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 20287, 12 April 1938, Page 4

WOMEN’S MOVEMENT

INDIA AND EGYPT

ABLE CABINET MINISTER Mrs. Grace Lankester, delegate from several British women’s organisations to the recent All-India Women’s Conference at Nagpur, has arrived in London. It was her first visit to India since she lived there 20 years ago, and she was intensely interested in the changes that have taken place, especially the entry of women into many fields. Mrs. Lankester visited two Indian States, and in each of the several provinces she visited she met women members of Parliament. She was impressed by the personality and ability of India’s first woman Cabinet Minister, Mrs. Pandit, sister of Mr. Nehru, and the great regard in which she is held by her colleagues. As Minister of Health and Local Self-Government in the United Provinces Mrs. Pandit holds a post second in importance to that of the Prime Minister and deals with so many matters that a third of the questions in the United Provinces Parliament are addressed to her.

On her way home Mrs. Lankester spent a fortnight in Egypt, where the women’s movement is not nearly so advanced as in India. She addressed several meetings of women, and found them especially interested to hear what progressive Indian women are doing for the improvement of village life. As conditions in Egyptian villages are much the same as in India the Egyptian women mean to study this question closely.