The Case for Women's Suffrage/Introduction
INTRODUCTION
IT is barely three years ago since, in writing of the apathy of the nation towards the old Liberal ideals, I penned this sentence: "Until women realise more fully than, alas! most of them do, the vital importance of politics to them, there are many electoral anomalies, but no loudly asserted grievance." Even so, the expression "loudly asserted" was an afterthought for "deeply felt," due to the hope that thousands of quiet women might feel adequately the indignity of being denied the elementary rights of citizenship, while lacking means or courage to avow their discontent. No one would use either phrase now. Confined three years ago to obscure corners of the newspapers, to meetings in private rooms, to the conversation of a select few, the question of woman's emancipation has suddenly become the most insistent political problem of the day. Even the apostles of "Tariff Reform" play a less conspicuous part at bye-elections, even the politics of Labour are less discussed in the public Press than the agitation which then appeared so lifeless. In less than three years the movement for the enfranchisement of women has made greater strides than in the century before, and the seed sown long ago by Mary Wollstonecraft seems at last likely to bear fruit.
There must indeed have been a deep, though almost inarticulate, discontent among the women of England to render so rapid a change possible. This discontent has at last found voice, and that not only through the members of the Women's Social and Political Union. This book will, it is hoped, come as a revelation to many of the wide extent to which the desire for political enfranchisement has permeated all classes of women in this country. Among the older suffragists, among the women Trades Unionists of Lancashire and Cheshire, among the thrifty housewives of the Co-operative Guilds, the influence of the same militant spirit will be seen working as in the organisation whose tactics have occasioned so much comment. Nor is it only the organised women who have felt the influence of the new movement. No book could be adequately representative of this new enthusiasm unless it found a place for the professional woman. Miss Smedley, Miss McMillan, and Miss Atkinson here give us the views of feminine culture and literature, while Mr. Zangwill and Mr. Keir Hardie voice for us the reflex effect of the movement on masculine letters and masculine politics. In the world outside we may see things no less significant. In Parliament the question is no longer discussed flippantly, but with the gravity due to a matter of practical politics. In the congresses of Labour there may be divergence of method, but not indifference; in the counsels of the older parties there is an angry feeling that at least this is a question that can no longer be ignored.
How welcome all this is to those who have for years striven to drive out the early-Victorian attitude towards women from politics it is needless to say. Looking out on a world pregnant with hope from east to west, the friend of democracy finds no part of the great world movement more hopeful than that which the women of England are now carrying on for their own emancipation. Even the Russian Revolution is not more widespread, certainly not more unexpected than this. In our unromantic age, our unromantic land, a great popular movement has at last arisen, a movement of revolt, not less heroic than those of more distant times and nations.
It is not yet so very long ago since the members of the Women's Liberal Associations decided no longer to work for any candidate who was not in favour of the emancipation of their sex. The views of the candidates were ascertained, and many of the most earnest women refused to work for unsatisfactory men. Here, perhaps, the more clear-sighted women may have realised the extent to which the denial of citizen rights to women has vitiated the atmosphere of British politics. In a State where women had votes it would be impossible for any party to select a candidate unacceptable to its members of either sex; but in England, outside the ranks of the Independent Labour Party, the whole business of selecting candidates is almost entirely monopolised by men. The members of Conservative and Liberal Associations select their candidates almost without consultation with their women comrades, and then invite the Primrose League and Women's Liberal Associations to work for them! Hence it comes about that the male supporters of either party are, for the most part, profoundly ignorant of the women's view of any question, and the women have no guarantee that, at any time, a candidate distasteful to them may not be thrust upon them. In that case they may be faced with the alternative of working for an opponent or of appearing at least to be disloyal to their party. Every authoritative party organisation should be so constructed as to be equally accessible to people of either sex. A party that desires to democratise the nation should begin by democratising itself.
The new policy of the Liberal women, then, though it has done something to advance the suffrage movement within the ranks of the party now in power, lacked the leverage to do as much as it ought; and even now Liberalism is hardly in advance of Toryism on this question. Many years of patient effort have failed to get Women's Enfranchisement recognised as a fundamental item on the Government programme. It is still perfectly possible that the largest Liberal majority for generations may do nothing for women; it is almost certain that it will do nothing unless compelled by outside pressure. Fortunately this outside pressure is now being applied, and that in a number of ways hitherto unattempted.
Our civilisation shows many pathetic figures, one of the most interesting of which is the aged lady grown grey in the cause of justice for her sex. For over forty years the suffrage societies have pleaded for the elementary rights of citizenship before parliaments more amenable to voting pressure than to the claims of justice or chivalry. They have pleaded in vain; but the patience of the older suffragists now shows signs of exhaustion, and the General Election of 1906 would have been a memorable one in the history of the movement, even without the new departures of the Women's Social and Political Union. Never before were candidates so persistently "heckled"; never before were the views and pledges of every elected man so clearly recorded. The fact that 420 members of the present Parliament are definitely pledged to Women's Suffrage is largely due to the efforts of the older societies. In the congested state of public business the election promises of private members matter little, if unsupported by a vigorous agitation outside; but, in view of the present position of the suffrage movement among women generally, this theoretically favourable attitude of Parliament is a fact of great importance. The efforts of the suffragists have secured a large majority in the House, and if this Parliament dies without conferring the franchise on women, the blame must rest entirely with the Cabinet. This is a satisfactory result of the work of the older suffrage societies, but it is due to the vast increase of vigour displayed by them for some time before the elections. In spite of the many acute issues then claiming the attention of the public, the education, fiscal, and Chinese labour controversies, the older suffragists found time to devote much more attention than of old to their special subject. Lapsed societies were revived, new groups were founded, and the question was brought more prominently before politicians than on any previous occasion.
At the same time women were playing a conspicuous part in the organisation of the new Labour Party. Ladies like Mrs. Pankhurst, Miss Margaret McMillan, and Mrs. Glasier, the late Mrs. Enid Widdington and Miss Caroline Martin had, from the first, done great things to further the propaganda that made such a party possible. In Labour politics, then, women have been in the inner circle from the commencement. It should never be forgotten that the million Trades Unionists and others who subscribe to the funds of the party include a large proportion of women. Among the Lancashire cotton operatives, indeed, women are in a great majority; and, as pointed out by Mrs. Nash, the character of the questions recently submitted to the people has been specially calculated to increase the interest of women in politics. Even in Australia, where there is no question of food taxes, I learn from Mrs. Martel, the Australian lady, who, after aiding to win the franchise at home, is now with us battling for the emancipation of her English sisters, women form the backbone of the Free Trade Party. Victoria, where women vote only for the Federal, not for the Colonial Parliament, is the most strongly Protectionist colony; New South Wales, where they have the full franchise, is firm for Free Trade. This, by the way, may help to account for Mr. Chamberlain's anti-suffragist opinions. Working women, who feel more severely than any one else the pressure of indirect taxation, could not be indifferent to proposals to tax without their consent the bread and meat for which they have such a struggle to pay. Mr. Chamberlain's campaign, then, had the unexpected effect of stimulating the demand for the franchise among the working women of Lancashire and Cheshire. The Labour Representation Movement was then making rapid headway, and Mr. Shackleton, the member for Clitheroe, found himself in the unique position of depending for his election and other expenses, in the main, on the subscriptions of women Trades Unionists. Naturally the women insisted on having a candidate favourable to their views, and Mr. Shackleton came to Parliament pledged to attend to the demands of the majority of his union.
Yet strong as Mr. Shackleton and others may be on the subject, the vicious atmosphere of British politics already alluded to affects even many of the Labour Party. It is next to impossible for the politician, however conscientious, to keep ever in his eye the needs of a non-voting class. No "interest" with votes behind it will ever be ignored altogether, and those who have felt deeply the falsity of one-sex politics will realise how hard a battle must sometimes be fought even among those theoretically in favour of universal suffrage. The Lancashire women are too keenly alive to the importance of the question to be entirely content with any party not wholly under their own control. Hence the General Election of 1906 saw another novelty, but little regarded at the time. Miss Gore-Booth recalls the candidature of Mr. T. Smith for Wigan, an attempt that would probably have been successful but for the obtrusion of an official Liberal rival, whose presence served only to split the progressive vote and preserve a seat for the reaction. The figures of this election were:—
| Sir F. S. Powell (C.) | 3,573 |
| T. Smith (Women's Suffrage) | 2,205 |
| Colonel W. Woods (L.) | 1,900 |
Thus the Conservative obtained a majority of 1,368. Had Liberalism been generous, I might say just enough to allow the Women's Party a straight fight, the Lancashire women might have won their very first contest.
The practical experience of work of a semi-public character gained by the women Trades Unionists and Co-operators of the North of England has indeed had a vastly stimulating effect on their interest in the wider politics of the State. Women Co-operators are among the keenest suffragists, and it is from them we have the most insistent demand for the enfranchisement of married women, of working-men wives. There is no class whose outlook on life, and consequently on politics, is more central than that of the housekeepers; and in excluding them from direct influence over the destinies of the nation we deprive ourselves of the help of the very pick of the voters. Whether, then, as most suffragists are agreed, the best thing to do is to destroy the sex disability first, or to start with a wider measure, the enfranchisement of all married women is a necessity, not only of just, but of stable politics, and must certainly come in the near future.
"How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!" These words of Walt Whitman, the poet who has written more sanely about women than perhaps any other, must have occurred frequently during the last few months to ardent friends of the Women's Movement, watching with a fearful interest the doings of the Women's Social and Political Union. By a long course of patient effort, by the gradual increase of women's influence in politics, trade unionism, and co-operation, the ground had been prepared for a great upheaval of the disfranchised sex. But the electric spark was needed which should turn woman the suppliant into woman the rebel. That spark has been supplied by the heroism and devotion of the women of the Social and Political Union. In face of these, objections may occur to the mind, but criticism is almost silenced among those who feel deeply how great is the work the members of the Union have achieved. Society has been angry and shocked, but society, for the first time in the history of the movement, has been compelled to listen. During the recent by-election at Hexham, while "Tariff Reformers" preached to inattentive ears, and even the candidates themselves received only moderate audiences, every village eagerly gathered together to hear what the "suffragettes" had to say. The Union has secured for the women of England the ear of the electorate, and, whatever may happen in the future, Women's Suffrage is henceforth a living question.
All this is well, for the issue raised is the greatest of modern times. On its decision depends nothing less than the character of the whole progressive movement in England. Under our eyes, the young democracy is taking shape; it is stating its peculiar problems, and formulating its answers to them. Questions of education, temperance, unemployment, housing, land, poverty, and finance, little regarded by the last generation, form the subject matter of politics in the present, and will do so still more in the immediate future. Yet, in the phrase already employed, so long as women remain without direct influence in the life of the nation these things can only come to life in a vitiated atmosphere. The removal of the sex disqualification will bring fresh air into English politics. Every advance made by constructive democracy must touch, never less, often more intimately the lives of women than of men, and the work of the age is constructive democracy. But parliaments respond only to voting pressure, rarely indeed to argument pure and simple; and thus the exclusion of women from the franchise means their exclusion from the work of the age. A grant of the suffrage to women on the same terms as men would only enfranchise a limited number of women, but it would suffice to change for the better the mental outlook of almost every practical politician in the land, while it would have far-reaching effects on the thoughts and feelings of the most commonplace "man in the street."
There could be no easier task for the present Government with its immense majority than to pass the simple measure introduced into the last Parliament to deal with the question. For this there is a majority ready pledged to their hands, a burning agitation ready to support them in the country, and no probability of serious opposition. It may safely be predicted that the moment a strong Government takes up this measure opposition will collapse, for that will mean the coming into existence for the next election of an actual women's vote; and though novices like Mr. Belloc may imagine vain things, older hands like Mr. Evans and Mr. Cremer will probably be wise enough to abstain from offending their future constituents. The Bill is as follows:—
"In all Acts relating to the qualifications and registration of voters or persons entitled or claiming to be registered and to vote in the election of members of Parliament, wherever words occur which import the masculine gender the same shall be held to include women for all purposes connected with and having reference to the right to be registered as voters and to vote in such elections, any law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding."
This change in the law would suffice to create a new political atmosphere. It would serve to recast every election address and almost every speech at the next general election. Candidates of all parties would know that there was an actual woman's vote, which might be offended and should be conciliated. We should no longer see candidates selected without consultation with the women of the party, without reference to this woman's vote. Canvassers would be sent round carefully instructed how to appeal to the needs and wishes of women; clever leader-writers would rack their brains over the unaccustomed task of finding reasons why women should support their party; ex-members of the House, who had a bad suffrage record, would either be persuaded to retire into private life or engaged in explaining away awkward votes and speeches, kindly unearthed from Hansard by their opponents. Every politician who knew his business would be "converted" by the accomplished fact; every political and social issue specially interesting to women would be galvanised into new life. In fact, politics would be cleared for ever of the spirit of sex domination and sex exclusiveness.
We can leave such difficulties, not without amusement, to the political wire-pullers of the near future; the constructive democrat has other things to consider. In the great city, says Walt Whitman again, "outside authority enters always after the precedence of inside authority." The institutions of a people are but the external and visible expression of the inner spirit of the nation and the age. The young democracy of this old nation can only build in the likeness of the spirit within it, the spirit of sex domination or of sex equality. It is this that makes many women and some men, temperate in other questions, so vehement in this. The denial of citizen rights to women is more than a mistake in detail; it is a blasphemy against the spirit of democracy, the unpardonable sin. It is painful that the fabric of the new democracy must needs be raised up slowly; it will be intolerable if we do not build aright, according to a human, not merely a masculine conception of politics. Before we proceed further in the work of constructive democracy, it is essential we should get the foundations right, that we should supply women with the only weapon that can secure the attention of politicians. This would secure one thing at least, that whether the forward march of humanity be swift or slow, at least men and women will advance with equal steps towards their common destiny.