On This Day, 16 July 1918

Birmingham Daily Gazette

Tuesday 16 July 1918

WOMEN IN POLITICS.

MISS MACATHUR’S CAMPAIGN AT STOURBRIDGE.

To Stourbridge belongs the distinction of being the first constituency to choose a woman as Parliamentary candidate.

Miss Mary Macarthur has been nominated as the prospective Labour candidate, and although her public work is well known in that part of the country she intends to prosecute an active campaign. Mrs. Philip Snowden and Miss Margaret Bondfield are also on the list of Parliamentary Labour candidates, but no constituency has yet to be found for them.

“The Labour Party are not going to take any chances with regard to the candidatures of women,” said Miss Macarthur to a Gazette man yesterday.

“I am not a feminist in the extreme sense of the word, and do not want to go to Parliament merely because I am a woman. Still, I don’t think the fact that I am a woman should prevent my election. I think that a good woman is better than a bad man, and that I am better qualified for Parliamentary work than some of the present members.”

“A LEGACY FROM THE ARK.”

Referring at Stourbridge last night to Mr. Bonar Law’s announcement of a conference on the question of women Parliamentary candidates, Mr. Arthur Henderson remarked that there might be on the subject some musty old law handed down from the ark. The search for it was probably giving some difficult, but whether any law dealing with the question existed or not, the extension of the Parliamentary franchise to women must be carried to its logical conclusion, and representation to the vote be given.