A WOMEN'S PARTY IN PARLIAMENT ?
BY THE DUCHESS OF ATHOLL.
THE return to Parliament at the recent General Election of women representing all three political parties and in sufficient number to form a compact and well-balanced if tiny group, and the fact that women's organizations all over the country are busily at work promoting many measures specially affecting their sex, have caused a discussion to be raised as to whether on such matters the women members of the House of Commons should not act as an organized body, while remaining attached to their several parties on other questions.
At first sight there seems something to be said for the suggestion. The generous hospitality shown to the women members as a whole by various women's organiza- tions has brought them from the start into friendly intercourse, and the provision of a separate sitting- room for them within the precincts of the House will, it is to be hoped, ensure its continuance. And a more potent factor still is the spirit of comradeship among women, which, unknown to the women of fifty years ago, owes its birth to the movement for higher education, which first brought girls out from a too often narrow home training into the broadening and invigorating stream of school and University life—a spirit which grew apace under the stimulus of the struggle for the Parliamentary suffrage, and which finally proved its worth in the esprit de corps inspiring the various women's Services during the late War.
This spirit of comradeship, combined with the fact that women were admitted to the franchise during the period when party activity had been suspended, first by the War, and latterly by the years of Coalition Government, has stimulated the formation of women's societies on a non-party basis—societies in which women of otherwise differing views meet together to discuss and formulate decisions on questions such as complete equality of status as between the sexes in all spheres of life, equality of pay, and the general welfare of childhood and youth. All these being questions which may be supposed specially to appeal to women, it may be argued that the women members of Parliament, while owning allegiance to their parties on other questions, should act as a party in regard to them.
Setting aside, however, the possibility that there may be differences of opinion among the women members on some of these questions, my view is that for them to attempt to act as a party would be a great, indeed a fatal, mistake. The claim that is being made is that women should be put on a basis of equal citizenship with men ; not that they should attempt to claim any special position or privileges. Surely this means that they wish to work side by side with men—on local bodies, in the exercise of the franchise, in the House of Commons—with free interchange of views, without claiming any privileges or special consideration, ready to take their share in the work, and anxious to make sure the footing they have gained by showing what they can, as individual women, contribute to the common stock of knowledge and of effort. If, while claiming each a place in the counsels of the recognized parties to which they severally belong, the women members also claim the right to set up their own party, will they not lay themselves open to the charge of demanding exceptional treatment—of wishing to "cat their cake and have it" ? That is a complaint that all too readily comes to a man's lips, and one to which women must before all things avoid giving any occasion. • Again, if the women members form themselves into a group, even in regard to "women's questions" only, do they not thereby deprive themselves of the advantage which should be gained by discussing these matters at an early stage with their men colleagues ? Many men have legal knowledge to which as yet few women can lay claim, and as a whole men have greater experience in business, both public and private, and it would seem that the aim of women should be to bring them into the discussion of these questions from the start. In any question concerning the relations of the sexes there must necessarily be a "woman's point of view," and a woman's sympathies and knowledge of her sex should reveal to her difficulties in the lives of other women of which men may have hitherto been unaware. But in the solution of all such problems we need the special gifts and endeavours of both sexes, and as, after all, no reforms can be carried without the assistance of men, common sense would seem to dictate that to this end women should endeavour to enlist the interest and co-operation of men at the earliest possible moment.
Indeed, I am convinced that not only does the only sure road of advance consist in women taking their place in the ranks, so to speak, in close and constant co-operation with men in these questions, but that any other way is likely to create a reaction that might defeat, or at least retard, their ends. There can be no men or women able to take a broad view of their country's interests who do not regard the suggestion of any division or antagonism on lines of so-called " class " as a great national danger, and who do not rejoice in every effort or institution that brings together members of different sections of the community to unite them in common aims and effort. Yet there is nothing either inherent or final in the circumstances which give rise to such distinctions. A parallel to our social structure is not to be found in a series of mountain ridges, sepa- rated by impassable ravines, but in a well-graduated slope—a slope which knows no barrier to character, ability, or education, and on which men and women, by means of these great forces, are continually passing and repassing each other. It is unnecessary to refer to the many instances that can be cited to-day of men who have passed from one extremity of the slope to the other. But it is obviously otherwise with regard to distinction of sex. Nothing can alter that funda- mental fact in the life of every human being ; and while women must be free to form their own societies, if they wish to do so, and difference of sex will always bring in its train distinctive qualities of mind and character, each with its own peculiar value, any attempt to form a women's party in the political sphere would, it is to be feared, be driving in the thin end of the wedge of a cleavage of the most dangerous kind.
Though deprecating, therefore, the suggestion of a women's party, I hope for much good fellowship and co-operation between women members of Parliament. They will, I hope, be able to discuss among themselves measures affecting women and children that are to be brought before the House; and though it is impossible to expect that they should be of one mind in everything, if they are able to discuss things in a friendly spirit of comradeship, they should be able to form useful links between the different political parties. And they will have done something for political life in this country if it prove that, while loyal to the parties to which they severally belong, and striving each to contribute their share to the attainment of that great fellowship of men and women which I hold should be their goal, they may yet, by that comradeship among themselves which is a happy fruit of the wider opportunities open to women of our generation, be able to promote truer understanding, and therefore more friendly relationships, between members of all parties in the State.
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