The Woman Socialist/Conclusion
CONCLUSION
The foregoing chapters are but the barest outline of what the future position of women will be. To describe in detail the possibilities of womanhood under a Socialist system would require many volumes this size. But crude and insufficient as is the information here, it is evidence of brighter and happier days in front of us.
It must be realised by women that the economic independence which is the promise of Socialism, is the aim to be kept in view in the exercise of the vote for which they are agitating. It must be understood by Socialists that the political enfranchisement of women is an absolutely necessary part of the establishment of Socialism; that, indeed, Socialism in the only true sense of that term, in the only wise conception of that State, can never be brought into the fulness of its being until women have been made equal with men as citizens.
To those amongst Socialists who are afraid of the results of the women's vote upon legislation let the results of the Finnish elections, which come to hand as I write, be pointed out. In Finland the women are free, having lately, by the will of the people, been granted the franchise; and, though this is the first time they have recorded their votes, "the general opinion in that country," says the special correspondent of a prominent newspaper, the Tribune, “is that they have perfectly acquitted themselves of their new rights and duties. The women showed greater interest, as a rule, than the men.”
To Socialists, an interesting point is the fact that, in spite of the women voters, who are supposed to be retrograde in politics, by far the largest number of party votes recorded were for the Socialist Party. The following is an analysis of the poll: Socialists, 293,021; Scveccomans, 212,235; Young Finns, 104,732; Swedish People’s Party, 97,712; Agrarians, 40,037. The desires of the women who took part in these elections were well expressed by one of their number, a lady of high birth and education, Madame Anni Furujelm, who said: “We don't want to swamp the Diet. We want only a few good women there. We wish to purify the political atmosphere. We have no special women’s Parties, but we have a special programme of our own. We shall demand in the Diet the abolition of the Liquor Trade and the prohibition of prostitution, the revision of marriage laws and the status of illegitimate children; and the recognition of the economic independence of women.”
This is precisely what is prophesied in these pages. In these words of a cultured Finnish woman is the strongest justification of the action of the Finnish people, and the finest recommendation to the people of this country to show the same wisdom and courage. In results, not seen merely at election times, but which will appear in manifold ways in the future, will be the rich reward which their confidence, and ours, deserves. Not the gain of a party, nor the enrichment of a class, should be the motive for granting an obvious right; but its object should be the raising of a sex out of the accursed slavery of custom, tradition, and conventionality into the “sweetness and light” of a perfect liberty; through which they shall work out for themselves a happiness they have never yet dreamt of. And for the race there shall be such richness of life, and such perfection of development, as can never be realised apart from the complete emancipation of women.
The End
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