"Women could no more reform the decaying parliamentary institution than men could...the
woman professional politician is neither more nor less desirable than the man
professional: the less the world has of either, the better it is for it." ---- Sylvia
Pankhurst, commenting on the election of eight women to parliament: ---- The return of
eight women to Parliament marks an advance in public opinion. People have realised at last
that women are persons with all the human attributes, not merely some of
them and that women have an equal right with men to take part in making the social
conditions under which they live. This country has not been first in admitting women to
political equality with men: other countries preceded us in admitting women to the
legislature, and we have not yet reached political equality in the franchise here,
although the women of this country led the way in agitating for political and legal equality.
Election to Parliament is always much more a question
of the strength of the party machine than of the qualities
of the candidate. An archangel would be defeated
at the polls if he lacked a strong party backing. The
majority of the electors vote without having heard or
seen the candidate, who actually plays but a minor part
in the election. Nevertheless, there was undoubtedly
some prejudice to be overcome by the first women
candidates; which acted as a makeweight against
them, outbalancing what would otherwise have
been the normal strength of the party behind them.
This election is the first in which the electors have voted
for thesuccessful womencandidates toanyappreciable
extent on the merits of those candidates. Lady Astor,
Mrs. Wintringham, and Mrs. Phillipson entered
Parliament merely as deputies of their husbands.
This fact, from a democratic standpoint, was
particularly objectionable in the case of Lord Astor
since he was thus given a voice in ruling the people
through both Houses of Parliament.
The women who entered Parliament in place of their
husbands introduced no original policies, nor do
we anticipate that their successors will do so. They
were nominated candidates and have been elected
to represent certain parties, and, in the main, their
parliamentary doings must follow that of their men
colleagues in the party, otherwise the party will cast
them out.
Most of these hardships, and the more serious of
them, cannot be remedied within the system. Most of
them, too, cannot even be mitigated without tampering
with economic conditions; and there, at once, the
general party policy will certainly obtrude itself, and
the party woman will be called to heel by the whips
like a party man if she stray far from the party plan.
Nevertheless, on questions of the special hardships
of women and on questions specially related to sex
the women members of the various parties may
sometimes show themselves a trifle before or a
trifle behind the general standard of their party by
adhering in some respects to what has come to be
generally regarded as the accepted programme of
feminism. It is so regarded because it was adopted
by certain women of the middle and upper classes,
who were, for their day, more or less advanced
though narrow and prejudiced in many respects, but
who were of forceful energetic personality and built
up a movement reflecting their conception of what
should be the legal status of their sex and primarily
of their class. That programme is, in many respects,
retrograde and, and in all respects, incompatible with
Socialism.
One should not expect to find new policies on any
subject springing up from Parliament; the atmosphere
there is arid, the life stultifying to thought. At best
at very best -- the Members of Parliament carry on
the politics they adopted before they entered there,
or catch up some vibrations or movements going on outside. Parliament is a decaying
institution: it will pass away with the capitalist system: it will be replaced by the
industrial soviets, when production, distribution and transport pass out of the hands of
the capitalist, to become the joint concern of the whole people, each branch of industry
being administered by those who are engaged in it.
Women can no more put virtue into the decaying parliamentary institution than can men: it
is past reform and must disappear.
Once the special legal disabilities of women in politics were in large measure, though not
wholly, removed, it became inevitable that there should be little difference between the
woman in politics and the man in politics.
That is as it should be.
The women professional politician is neither more nor less desirable than the man
professional politician: the less the world has of either the better it is for it. The
time to look forward to is that in which there will no longer be a body of persons whose
business it is to rule or to listen to speeches of the rulers and their puppets and to
while away hour upon hour waiting to record their votes in division lobbies to the call of
the party whips.
The Soviets, under Communism, will meet for the administration of the services of the
community, not to carry on the party warfare which is inevitable to present - day society,
because it is based on competition and torn by the struggles of warring classes. To the
women, as to the men, the hope of the future lies not through Parliamentary reform, but
free Communism and the soviets.
Published in Workers’ Dreadnought, 15 December 1923.
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» Britain, Anarchist Federation ORGANISE! #84 - Sylvia Pankhurst on Parliament