WOMEN AND THE LAW

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16225, 4 July 1918, Page 2

WOMEN AND THE LAW

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS." Sir, —Mv attention has been called to an article, entitled "Women and tlie Law," which appeared in a recent issue of "The Press." In it you say that you do not understand t'he grounds upon which women ask for such reforms as the employment of women in the capacity of Magistrates, justices of the peace, jurors, and police. I can hardly believe, sir. that you do not know and appreciate the fact tnat as women .are coming moro and more into the enjoyment of their rightful position as co-citizens and co-workers with the men, they are also coming more and more into the realisation of their responsibilities to humanity in i general and to the weak, and helpJess, and unfortunate of their orvn sex in particular. Now if there is any place where their sympathy ana help can bo manifested it is in the law courts. You cannot be ignorant of the condition of things that prevails in cases where offences against children are dealt with. Frequently little girls, scarcely more than infants, have to give evidence before a. Court composed entirely of men. What father considers himself competent to deal with the troubles of his own little children? and yet, in the most painful and disgusting cases, the law considers that men are the proper persons to deal with such matters. But, if the position is bad where little children are concerned, it is mucli worso in the ca3e of young girls. A girl's sense of modesty is outraged by her having to answer before a body of men the questions that must necessarily be put. It is the knowledge of what a Court case means that prevents numbers of parents from bringing offenders to justice. Nor would we stop at cases where children are concerned ; any woman, no matter how fallen, is entitled to the help of her own sex. Every woman who has had any experience of social work in connexion j with tho Courts is persuaded of the need for reform. The late Mrs Cun-|

nington, so well-known and so honoured for her work in this connexion, was a strong advocate for the employment of women in tho departments indicated. One of the last letters 'her wrote to the newspapers in this city pleaded for the appointment of women justices of the peace. We do not ask that women should supersede men, but that they should be associated with men in cases where women and children are concerned. Further, I must take exception to your statement that it is only "very small groups of earnest ladies who are agitating themselves." This is not correct even of New Zealand- I think I am right in saying that every woman's supports tho suggested reforms—and the Women's Christian Temperanco Union, which has for yeais consistently advocated them, has a membership of over seven thousand. But tho agitation is not supported 'jy women only; last year the Auckland Education Board, and tho Grand Jury at oue of the Supreme Court sessions in tho same city, suggested the employment of women police. Tho movement is not qpnfined to New Zealand, but is strongly supported in all parts of the British Empire and the United States of America. In Great Britain hundreds of women police are already employed in connexion with the women workers in munition factories, and the National Union of Women's Suf-

frage Societies includes women Magistrates, justices of the peace, and jurors in its programme of work for the newly-enfranchised women. In Canada women police arc employed in some of the larger centres of population, and there arc several women Magistrates who deal with cases in the Juvenile Courts and the Women's Courts. In South Africa women police are employed in Capetown, ~nd in Durban women sit on the Juvenile Advisory Board. In Australia, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney have women police; South Australia has between twenty and thirty women justices of the peace, and a woman J.P. has been recently appointed in Brisbane. The United States of America employ women in every capacity associated i with the administration of the law. Dr. Kate Davis wdte, and probably still is, superintendent of the largest prison in New York State; Mrs Helen Grenfell is chairman of the State Board of Corrections for Colorado; the judge of the Juvenile Court of Chicago is a woman, and in other States the judge has a. woman assistant to hear and pass upon all girls' cases. Women probation officers and women police are employed in more than half the States, and their number is constantly increasing.

There is a familiar ring about the last paragraph of your article. Woman's sphere is the home has ever been the first and the last argument advanced against woman every time she has straightened her back from the worktub or dropped the scrubbing brush from her hand to plead that she might be allowed to help her fellows. Granting the urgency of the call of the home, and no Hrue woman wishes to deny it, there are hundreds of women still in the prime of life, who have successfully launched their families '"n life, and who now desire to employ their leisure in making the world a little safer for their children's children. And what of those women to whom the blessing of home and children has been denied? This war will mean that thousands of women, who under happier circumstances would be caring for and training children 1 of their own, will be free to devote themselves to public work, and thev have abundantly proved their ability 'to undertake anv department of that work. —Yours, etc., C. HENDERSON. Hon. Secretary N.Z. Women's Christian Temperance Union. July 3rd, 1918.