The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-11-21
WHY SHE STANDS OUT

Among the many noIaDIe women who are working whole-heartedly for the new order here in England, Mrs. Fisher stands out from the rest partly because of a remarkable personality and partly because being young and brilliant she might easily have preferred the social prestige and affluence which come to her by right of birth rather than the nard work and financial strain whicA in this country invariably attach to those who dedicate themselves to reform.
 Slender, with big brown eyes, lovely hair and still under 4o-she is the wife of the minister of education, the most striking and popular member of the cab met. Her father Is an eminent London lawyer, and clerk of the House of Com mons She was educated at Somervills College, Oxford, and like all women of her generation, denied a degree. Her ST ecialty at college was history. She won a scholarship at the London Sc&ool of Economies and after her marr+@ge to MT. Fisher, who was then fellow and tutor of New College, Oxford, she continued her social research work.
 Her life passion is children. It is no secret that the education act, the most advanced piece of general legislature en- acted during the war, was largely in- spired by Mrs. Fisher, and that the Bastardy Bill which has just received universal approval in the House of Com
 mons and in the country is Mrs. Fishers bill. l asked her how, with all her other interests, she came to be identified with this ungrateful cause.
 When I was asked to become the chairman of the council for the unmar- red mother and her child, l was so busy that it seemed as if l could not find another hour in the week, but I knew that I was no more busy than the other women working for reform and I knew that unless we got people right now while everybody is still anxious to | do the right thing by the victims of the
 war, we should never get any sort of a l bill through
 HER OWN HOME How aboul your own nome and your familySs" I ventured.
 "Ah, that's always the test where 8 woman is concerned, isn't it? You'd never ask a man that question, would you? Nowadays, especially nearly every woman has got to decide which she will do, domestic or public work, and 1t isn't many who can do both. It was different with the victorians in those spacious 1 times women could have seven or a dozen children, but with seventeen nurses | to look after them and still be free for l social and charitab ble outside enter prises. Now women have got to choose 1 between families of their own or public work. l adore children. I wanted to 1 have 8 large family. As & matter of l fact, l have one little girl l am only able to spend my week ends and 'hol- | idays with her.
 '"rhen she doesn't live here in town
 with your" l asked.
 | No l am only one of thousands who have had to choose between the 1 strain and unnatural conditions of city life for small children (mne is seven, i,,,, when we are free. l have chosen for | the country and my little girl lives down in Surrey, where I go to her every
 Friday and stay until Monday morning." Doesn't it make it pretty hard for | you with all your engagements and your writing? Surely you have no tirpe for l social life recreation. Y No, social life doesn't exist for me There is very little work done in Lon- l don on Saturday or Sunday and I am always sp bright And early Monday morning. So. we have figured it out we really have more of our little daugh- ter than we should do if she were here for when we go down to her we are with her all the time and we all look upon the time i'll town as merely intervals in our lives.
 Besides, my man needs me here. I am always ready to help him, always I at- tend to him and his wants before any thing else-and he needs plenty of at- tention. Here again I think in reality we are more together than couples ot the older generation. We work together at home and play together in the coun- try; we are only separated when special work calls us apart.'
 Which work do you consider ths more important. his or yours?' I could not help asking.
 We make no rule. Sometimes his. sometimes mine. But his work is really more important because his opportu- mites are greater. The chance of d man to help is now often greater than that of woman, but it need not be SO That is part of what we have got to change. Women have got to have an equal chance But with the chance comes the inexorable obligation to work. When the parasite women are abolished we shall not have women who do work so overburdened But then the class of men who loked upon work for them or to amuse them--wiu go. too. Then all women will have more time for their families, time to spend in the wonderful new houses we are going to build. doing the useful and interesting things that are wait ing to be done.
 TALKS OF. MORALITY
 We drifted into morality. Did she, asked. think the morals of England are corrupt"
 '-Of course not Figures prove that they are not. Do you remember all the panic about the war babies?' Well there weren't any. In the year that the panic occurred there were fewer illegitimate children born than for more than a decade. In 1917 illegiti- mate children births fell to s7.ooc; in 1918 they rose to 41 1.00o. and that IS the highest they have ever got That was the last year of the war after the war babies scare had completely died down. You would almost think it had been suggestion. Anyhow the fact re- mains that it was all talk.
 "One thing our exhaustive investiga- ton has proved and that is that the type of girl who becomes an unmar- lied mother is changing. There has all ways been the mental deficient. the