WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43114, 6 July 1907, Page 1

WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT

The new Finnish Parliament, according to a Helsingfors despatch dated May sth is remarkable from the fact that one-sixth of the deputies are women. The granting of female suffrage was followed by a, striking success of women candidates at the polls. Fortypine candidates, were nominated, and nineteen were elected, the votes recorded by women in many instances showing a, preponderence over those cast by the men. This was due largely to the enthusiasm of the women vot-

erg, as organised by the leaders of the J “women’s rights” movement. In several places the elections were reI hearsed, so that the voters might be properly instructed in the duties that! were expected of them. The result was that in Helsingfors 16.900 women re-1 corded their votes to 12,864 men; in I Ekenas, 614 women to 338 men : in j Tavastehus, 1122 women to 756 men : in Bjorneborg, 3056 women to 2233 men;; in Harigo, 696 women to 428 men. The Swedish Party elected onlv one woman, Mile. Dagmar-Neovius, one i.of the most prominent suffragists. The Finnish Party counts six women successes, including the Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg, Mile. Hilda Kakikowski, and Mine. Evelina Alakulji, the wife, of a, peasant. The Young Finnonians had two , successes, the Agrarians one, and the Socialists) eight, of which Mine. Hilja Parasinen polled 29,276 votes—the highest recorded for women candidates!^