THE FUTURE OF THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT
BY THE EDITOR OF Time and Tide.
TIRE Women's Movement has reached an interesting stage. It is well worth the attention of those who are concerned with the various streams of thought which, taken together, make up political life, determine public opinion, and decide the future actions of the country.
The women who took part in the fifteen years of inten- sive agitation which: preceded the granting of a partial franchise in 1918 were actuated mainly by a determina- tion that women as well as men should have a share in deciding the political future of the country ; they were spurred on also by the existence of certain definite laws which in their judgment bore unfairly and with obviously evil results on the disenfranchised portion of the corn:, raunity, and by the urgent need for certain legal reforms which they did not believe it possible to bring about so long as those who chiefly desired them had no votes. The laws which they desired to alter were concerned with in- equalities as between the two sexes : the Bills which they desired to initiate were concerned with the better care and protection of children. The reforms they demanded were all fairly obvious and clear cut, nor did any of them ruii counter to general public opinion.
It was natural that when a limited franchise was achieved in February, 1918, to be followed in November of the same year by an Act admitting women to one of the Houses of Parliament, the non-party women's 'organiza- tions should have put aside for the moment' their deter: mination to achieve political equality and turned their attention partly to building up their local organizations throughout the country on the new bases suitable for a partially enfranchised membership, but chiefly towards achieving the various social reforms, the immediate need for which had spurred them on in their efforts to force the vote from a country always fearful of any alteration in the seat of power. Nor was it surprising that all over the country the various local non-party women's organiza- tions should have received a very large reinforcement from amongst women who had not troubled themselves overmuch to secure the vote, but who felt that, as en- franchised citizens, they must join with other newly enfranchised citizens, learn something about the science of politics, and do their share towards making the country what it seemed to them it ought to be.
The history of the last seven years in the women's movement has been a record on the one hand of largely increased membership throughout the country from women hitherto not concerned with political matters, and on the other of the working for certain specific reforms which were felt to be not only essential but very long overdue. In some directions, notably in securing better terms for women in the teaching profession, in the Civil Service, and in industry, little advance has been made, but on the whole the non-party organizations have been fairly successful. The marriage laws are now equal. If the laws governing the guardianship of children are not yet equal they have become, by the passing of the Act which came into force on October 1st last, less grossly unequal than they were before. A number of new pro- fessions have opened their doors to women ; women jurors and magistrates have come into existence. By the; Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1922 the protection! afforded to children has been considerably increased.) Above all; the achievement of widows' pensions has given new hope to the fatherless child and a fresh sense of security to its mother. All these reforms have had to be worked for, fought for, day by day ; they have been achieved, almost always, in a mutilated form. And all through, those who have worked for them have been con- tinually made conscious that the fact that women were only partially enfranchised was telling heaVily against the unmutilated passage of the reforms in which they took the keenest interest. Again and again, too, they have felt the .disadvantage of having no woman in the Upper House of Parliament. In the Lower House the work done by Lady Astor, Mrs. Wintringham, Miss Wilkinson and other women M.P.s has been invaluable.
They have been ably seconded by numbers of friendly M.P.s, and it is generally admitted that the fact that they were there to serve as rallying points has made an incal- culable difference to the legislation passed. In the Upper House there was no such help. The women's Bills were regarded by the Peers as unimportant measures. Although almost all were ostensibly fathered by the Government of the day they received, in most cases, only tepid Govern- ment help, and the presence of two or three enthusiastic and informed supporters would often have made all the difference. Time and again the promoters of some measure of the kind have been told " There is no use trying for that ; the House of Lords would never pass it."
In spite of all these difficulties much has been done, but it seems clear to those who have watched the progress of events that the women's movement has now achieved as much in the way of social reform as it can possibly accomplish with the incomplete political weapons at its command.
Meanwhile, another factor must be taken into account. Set free from the preoccupation of the vote, reinforced by a large influx of new members, the women's non-party organizations throughout the country have begun to hammer out a new policy. All over the country such questions as family endowment, birth control, the best means for securing international co-operation and good will, the need for securing more attention to the point of view of the consumer, temperance questions, housing problems, educational problems, are being discussed and rediscussed. It seems certain that the next immediate practical step will be a concentration of the whole energy of the women's non-party organizations on a demand for full enfranchisement and the right of admission to both Houses of Parliament. A half citizenship is not enough.
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