WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT.

Observer, Volume XL, Issue 6, 11 October 1919, Page 2

WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT.

A New Era

"I ADIES and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives," will in all probability shortly be tho Governor-General's style of address to the members of the Lower House. It is not at all strange that the Legislative Council should have amended the Womans' Rights Bill to exclude women from the Legislative Council, to which all the present members have been nominated and not elected, as a reward for services rendered—many of them highly valuable. The fact that women may now stand for election to the House of Representatives carries no suggestion that large numbers of ladies will rush to become M.P.'s, and it will probably require courage of a very high order in prospective lady members to face an election.

The lady who has the physical and mental stamina to become an M.P. will be well worthy her place, and will, without any doubt whatever, influence Parliament for good. The country which justly agrees that a woman shall be eligible for a seat in Parliament would logically agree that wherever a man candidate stands, there also should a wqman candidate stand. To carry the great experiment out in its entirety, a woman should stand for every seat in the House. The logic of the situation is, "If a lady is valuable to Parliament then a Parliament, wholly composed of ladies, must be more valuable." If a lady becomes an M.P., then a lady M.P. might become a Minister of the Crown. If a lady Minister of the Crown, why not a lady Premier?

• The appearance of a lady candidate , here and there would be an insufficient test of the whole country's feeling towards women rulers. We might admit that two or three successful women would be constitutionally quite fit to become M.P.'s, and they would certainly be possessed of extraordinary courage. Anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing photographs of the women M.P.'s in the Finnish Parliament will have observed that without exception these ladies are all of the

same type, strong in body and determined of feature-—tending a little towards the masculine, and undeniably careless of feminine appearance. It is thought therefore that in ether countries, including New Zealand, the/type of strongminded woman, who feels ehe has a mission to rule, will emerge from the home and mount the forum. The process will necessarily be gradual.

There is a good deal of feminine shyness still left in women, and the desire to enter into political competition with men is not at all universal. It would be a natural corollary of a Parliament containing lady law-makers that there should be lady law-administrators, and the justice of this could never be questioned. It has been seen that men politicians have been made judges. The step from a lady Minister of the Crown to a lady Judge of the Supreme Court would be a logical sequence.

There is no reason why, if a lady aspired to the House, she should not aspire to the Bench. In like manner the whole administrative business of a country might be .altered, and a new era of mutual rule established more or less satisfying to society in general. Politics will possibly attract those ladies whose family ties do not prevent them politically aiding the State, and there are a very large number of these ladies in New Zealand in this category who have the requisite leisure to devote to our betterment.

The growing feminine belief that women owe a duty to the State as well as the home may induce the emergence of many ladies from the narrow confines of domesticity into the broader avenues of national politics. It will be of great interest, not only to see how many women become candidates at the General Elections, but to observe the type who wish to become joint rulers with men of this progressive country. Those who ardently hope for reform will welcome the entry into Parliament of ladies who courageously throw over the age-old conventions hitherto governing the sexes, and demonstrate administrative .sex equality and executive ability.