The New Force in Politics

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 44, 14 May 1927, Page 19 (Supplement)

The New Force in Politics

TN a crowded “smoker” on the Underground Railway in London, between 11 p.m. and midnight, you may sometimes see an unpretentious little woman, dark, small, and plainly dressed, hanging on a strap. She is a working woman going home from work—the Duchess of Atholl, M.P., returning from her duties at the House of Commons. This strap-hanging, working Duchess M.P. is a sign of the quiet earnestness with which women are now doing their work and living their life in the House of Commons. A Parliamentary Pioneer

What are the women M.P/s like? How do they dress, speak, and work? The first woman to sit in the British House of Commons was Americanborn. She had. however, become a British subject by her marriage with Air. (now Viscount' Astor. Lady Astor, Mi* is a woman of marked individual ity. Petite, with

striking palloi and blue eyes that seem strangely ex Pressive: excitable, desperately in earnest about every cause with which sti e identifies herself —some would call her a “bundle of nerves”—she is i of the outstanding personalities m the House. One of the swiftest bits of Parlia entary repartee in recent years was P-oauced by Lady Astor in one ot her j deb* 1 * SS lightnin S interruptions in j

A Labour member was declaiming . .” l T e aims of his party: *‘oi e are out to abo^ war ” ■wT BB war? ” came like a pistol Baot :.rom Lady Astor. Labour’s First Three

vnm *' ' Vinlrin sham was the second el to obtain a seat. She was ... ,?c * Liberal .VI.P. tor the Louth bana of Lincolnshire when her husdled suddenly. A gentle, comely Bym 111, w jth rosy cheeks and brown, ahi Q « rhetic * e yes, she was a noticeA l( ? BUre in widow’s weeds, wom, - gll tfle franchise was given to •hat* tn lll 1918, was not until Sa ndin 6 al>our Barty succeeded in 'Hie any women to Parliament, field q SJ t^ lree wer Margaret Bond-Jeu-c^^ 1155311 Lawrence, and Dorothea M all s^nsters. Plet,^ S Dorothea Jewson, who com w on:ie n p early trio of Socialist «SHre „ . s 1S a sl ‘Sht. girlish Una,..' 'ip'et and almost pathetically °f manner When she little SP<l t * le House she spoke in aliva v ? r *’ than a whisper. Yet she say aac * something arresting io a w Hen a friend was unemployed t° u ; ld Wson asked her what she

“Make jumpers,” said the friend. So Miss Jewson sat all one Sunday helping her unemployed friend to finish the jumpers she was making, and later on took them round the shops and sold them. Of quite another type is Miss Susan Lawrence. She is a tall, refined, but forceful-looking woman, with hair brushed smoothly back from the forehead, striking a note of austerity that is repeated and emphasised by her severe taste in dress. Miss Bondfield was the first woman Minister. A trado union official for" many years, and prior to that a shop assistant and pupil teacher, she has long been recognised as one of the most eloquent and well-informed speakers in the Labour ranks. - “Not Tall Enough*

She is a little woman, plump of face and slight of figure. Her glossy blac.lt hair is parted in the middle (writes Charles T. King in a London weekly paper). When Margaret Bondfield came to London, sh* - Camped the streets tor

weeks looking for work. She tried the whole of Oxford Street, going into every shop and then, when slu happened on a vacancy was told she was “not tall enough.” She tells 01 working 76 hours week for about 1 a year and

How, in order to get a bath when un der the “living-in” system, she and others had to race from the shop the moment it was closed on the one night the public baths were open late enough in order to u ess bathe, and dress again in the quarter of an hour before the attend: , t had to turn them out! Both Miss Lawrence and Miss Bondheld are now back in the House again, but the only woman Labour M P when the new Parliament was elected in 1924 was Miss Ellen Wilkinson Small —so small, indeed, that she iinds it necessary to use her attache-case as a footstool —pale of face, with large luminous brown eyes ana shingled red hair, her mental gifts are of a high order. If one woman M.P is more popular all over the House than the others it is Ellen Wilkinson. Striking The Colour Note

Mrs. Hilton Phiiipson—Miss Mabe! Russell of the stage—is the first ex actress to obtain a seat ill the House of Commons. She has done no acting there; she has done sincere good work. . She is most happily married, and at night in the lobby, hours before the House rises, a slim, enormously tall, fresh-looking young man in evening dress may be seen cheerfully awaiting the moment to escort her home. He is her husband.

One of the smartest women who have yet graced the greer benches of

tlie House of Com mons was Lady Terrington, recently the Lib eral member for South Bucks. A tall, slight figure, with rich. clus tering dark hair, coiled at the back, she wore a string Df pearls, and the touches of scarletjvirs

in her apparel gave a welcome note of colour to the sombre-garbed assembly in Parliament. Where Women Score

The Duchess of Atholl, M.P., Par iiamentary Secretary to the Board ot Education, is one of those M.P.’s who are extremely telling without the aid of “fireworks.” She is the first Con servative woman to become a Min ister.

The work of *vomen in Parliamem Pas been invaluable. In connection with food prices, food purity, housing, education, women police, the Guardian ship of Children Act, the Legitimacy Bills, the Criminal Justice Act, and the many questions involving bills dealing with young girls, the child and the home, which come up for discussion from time to time, they have done good service to their sex and their country. There is no doubt about it, the woman M.P has come to stay.