BEFORE WOMEN VOTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 904, 22 February 1930, Page 10

BEFORE WOMEN VOTED

GIRLS WERE GIRLS IN THOSE DAYS INFLUENCED BY LOVERS i In these days of female emancipation, when it is taken for granted that every woman, be she young or old, has a perfect right to think and do as she likes, as well as to vote in any way she wishes, it seems strange to read some of the arguments that were once used against women being given the vote or any other form of political power. When in 1842 a number of women held a meeting in London to discuss the formation of a female Chartist Association, a male Chartist named Cohen spoke against the interposition of women in political affairs and “put it to the mothers present whether they did not find themselves more happy in the peacefulness and usefulness of the domestic hearth than in coming forth in public and aspiring after political rights?” An Indignant Lady Naturally there was a good deal of indignation, and one lady asked Mr. Cohen whether he did not consider women qualified to fill public offices. Unabashed, Mr. Cohen replied that he would "with all humility and respect ask the young lady what sort of office she would aspire to fill. If she would fill one, she would fill all. He was not going to treat the question with ridicule, but he would ask her to suppose herself in the House of Commons as a Member for a Parliamentary Borough, and that a young gentleman, a lover, in that House, were to try to influence her vote, through his sway over her affections; how would she act? Whether, in other words, she could resist, and might not lose sight of the public interests?” At this stage, says the report, there were cries of Order! Order! but Mr. Cohen was not silenced. “He wished to be in order. He was for maintaining the social rights of women; political rights such as he understood that meeting to aspire to, she could never in his opinion attain.” A Delicious Idea Thi3 drew forth an energetic ■peech from a Miss Mary Anne Walker. She "repudiated with indignation the insinuation that, if women were in Parliament, any man, bo her husband or be her lover, w ould dare to be so base a scoundrel as to attempt to sway her from the strict line of duty.” Naturally, Miss Walker was much applauded and received the thanks of the women present for her defence. In these days when women, both married and single, are in Parliament, and we have women Cabinet Ministers, it is a delicious idea to think of them voting as their husbands or sweethearts direct them. Fancy Lady Astor asking Lord Astor just before she goes down to the House how he wants her to vote!