The Wanganui Chronicle. FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1928. WOMEN AND THE VOTE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20126, 20 April 1928, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle. FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1928. WOMEN AND THE VOTE IN SOUTH AFRICA

JX MOST countries the attainment of enfranchisement has

signified a definite step in the recognition of the woman’s movement by the general public. Tn South Africa, however, although women have begun to participate in public affairs, they are still without the parliamentary vote. The fault does not lie entirely with the. politician but to a great extent with the women themselves. South Africa is primarily an agricultural country, and the women of the farming community do not, as yet, want the vote. Peculiar as this may sound to-day, it can, like most other matters, be explained and readily understood if the customs and general habits of the people be taken into consideration.

In spite of modern transport facilities, distances in South Africa are so great that opportunities for social intercourse are limited, vast areas being but sparsely populated and only partially civilized. There are many farmer folk who meet their kind only once every three months at the quarterly gathering for church services. Owing to the very bad roads in many parts of the country some of them have to travel with their families by ox-wagon for as long as a fortnight to reach the nearest church. This isolation has retained for them the faith of their fathers—a faith in which women have virtually no voice—and has kept their habits and customs simple, almost primitively so. The women indeed have no desire for the vote —they would refuse it if it were offered to them.

The women in the towns, however, feel that the time has come to join more prominently in matters of public- interest. They have realized that home duties are not the only duties to consider but that the community also has a claim upon their time and thought. Women’s organizations of all kinds have sprung up during the last ten or fifteen years, and the success that is being attained is worthy of praise. Women of all sections are working at reform, child welfare, mother-craft, domestic science schools, and so forth, inspired by the thought that only when the rural community has been made to see what woman can accomplish and how far-reaching her influence can be will come the acceptance of obligations.

The South African National Council of Women, a member of the International Council of Women, is striving to combine all efforts and unite all organized work of this nature. Its strength at present consists chiefly in the driving power which, comes from the desire for progress. The number of established branches is still small but the individual members are zealous.

They are working to unite women’s associations of all nationalities, all kinds and all creeds, knowing that in a country such as South Africa, where the population consists of numerous and often widely varying elements, national unity and strength can only be obtained by international tolerance and universal good will.