ENGLAND'S MUST WOMAN M.P.

White Ribbon, Volume 26, Issue 309, 18 March 1921, Page 1

ENGLAND'S MUST WOMAN M.P.

A charming group of La«l> .Vetor with her family. She carried tin* Plymouth election by a majority of 5,203. and thus becomes the first woman to Like her scat in the House of Commons.

views. And while charm and wit are all-important in keeping an election good-tempered, it is the serious views that must count afterwards. The responsibility of the tlrst woman M.P. is a great one, a fact which Astor fully recognises. Although, as you know, it has been delightfully said of her that she “has laughed her wu> into Parliament,’’ she has never for a moment desired the kind of publicity which the daily Press has thrust upon her, nor has she ever treated her election in the frivolous spirit that the pul» lie has been led to understand. She is well aware of the importance of her position, and her ambition, far from being to shine in newspaper headlines, is to lie reall> a good representative of her constituency. I<edy Astor’s interests and activities have long centred in Plymouth, where she is a well known and popular figure. She has never taken a prominent place in feminist polities, and has not offered herself for election as a so-called “woman's candidate,” but as you know, she is replacing her huslxand in the House- of (’ominous since he has inherited the peerage, and so been translated to the House of Lords. With her it is something of a point of honour that an Astor should represent Plymouth. Sinprobably would not have stood for elec tion elsewhere. As it is, she feels that she really knows and understands Plymouth. She has shared in its public life, she has participated in her husWind’s candidature, she is herself a suitable representative of the constituency, and in no wa> debarred from lx*, ing so by the fact of being a woman a view in which you and I heartily concur. While she does not avow herself n woman’s candidate, Lady Astor does not fail to recognise the import a nit- to future women M.P.’B and the woman citizen throughout the country of her own Parliamentar> career. She rightly considers it of the first importance to establish the fact once and for all that a woman can be a good repreaentatin of her constituency. That is the first assistance she can give to future women candidates in silencing the objec lions of their prejudiced critics.