The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-13
MRS. FLORIBEL BROWN OHA1E FIRST WOMAN IN COUNTY TO QUALIFYAS CANDIDATE FOR
 AN OFFICE TO BE ELECTED BY VOTE OF MEN

all of womans time, especially when there are no children to look after,
 and I would rather give my spare hours
 and days if needs be, to the cause of
 education than anything else, because
 that is the thing I am most inter ested in."
 Do you think that women are needed
 on boards of education?' I asked.
 "That question was well answered when
 the legislators at the last general as- sembly passed a law giving them chance
 to serve," she said. "The law was
 passed in answer to call from the
 mothers, the women teachers and the
 children of the state and in recogn1- tion of the splendid work the women have done in their school improvement asso-
 citations all over Alabama. Do l think they are needed on boards of educat1on
 Are women needed in the home? Are
 women needed in the schoolroom? Are
 women needed in the churches? You know S1 per cent of the teachers of this coun- ty are women. Half the children Tn the
 primary grades, and more than half the children in the high schools are girls, and surely half the parents are mothers On yes women are necessary on the boards of education, just as men are necessary. We need the maternal instinct, the wom- ans viewpoint and the mother love Just as we need the masculine viewpoint and the fathers love, patriotism and help. Just as the young man needs the advice and assistance of the father, just so the child in school needs the woman. If the women are on the boards they can become better acquainted with school methods and have a voice in the rules and regulations governing the education of the youth.''
 Another thing" Mrs. Ohme observed, "an excerpt from the report issued by the department of education on the 15 new school laws seemed to predict the dawn Of a new era for educational uplift in the state, and I, being a woman, of course wanted to see the comment made by our superintendent of education upon the laws which entitled women to serve upon school boards, which I found in part to be as follows:
 This measure Is recognition of the part women have played in the success of our schools. The voluntary work that they have done for some years through the agency of the school improvement as- sociation has made it clear that they can and will lay themselves out in the task of improving school conditions in way that men would never do. No tales of yesterday and no romance of today can eclipse in wonder the improvements that they have wrought in local school conditions. It is altogether fitting that their partnership in the school work should have the same recognition that is found in the home where the most refin- ing thing is the maternal instinct and the mother love-"
 Mrs. Ohme Is indeed a most wholesome example of the modern feminist, minus
 any of the masculinity which is frequent ly supposed to characterize the woman of today who is in public life; on the con- trary, the spirit of this gentle woman hasn't even touch of the masculine; she
 is quiet, well bred, kind, firm and withal an attractive, charming personality Mrs Ohme is a type of officeseeker that has as yet been entirely unknown in the south-the feminine, truly feminine type, but credit to the citizenship of the great state of Alabama.
 Another vital fact concerning Mrs. Ohme, and her candidacy for a place on the school board, is that her husband is just as enthusiastic and just as interested in his wife's candidacy as she is herself, i and in their mutual intent in school work and general education they are congenial, as they are in many phases of domestic, economical. humanitarian and social mat ters.