The Washington herald., 1920-12-22
By MARY HENkE.

Achievement by American womer
of full political rights has given q
new impetus to the struggle OF
Englishwomen for equality.
But the presenting woman's fight
in England is not poIitieal-it Is
economic. The pre-war slogan. the
right to vote" has become = To-
right to work"
There is a political struggle going
on. During the war Englishwomer
were enfranchised by what they
term fancy suffrage" Only about
falf the normal voting woman pop.
ulation is enfranchised. Women un-
der thirty are disqualified; SO are
women who are not householders
That means a great percentage oI
the industrial women workers have
not political rights.
Suffrage organizations at the
present time. are conducting a cam.
paign in England to extend the vot,
to women under thirty. The once
militant and the constitutional
bodies are conducting the hight to-
gether in amity. Their methods are
now the same.
The old leaders of the militants
lave dropped out OF sight. Mrs
Fankhurst has been in America. ans
is entirely out of touch with the
suffraeists here. That other dar.
ing militant. Mrs. Despard, tho
| combative sister OF Lord French
now is using her fighting powers
in the cause of Sim Fein. Apathy
has replaced the earlier warfare
The older suffragists arc complain
ing that the young women arc en-
tirely without interest in their own
political fight. They say it is es-
pecially true of university women
Before the war women "came down
from the universities full of on
thusiasm for the suffrage cause
The present-day graduate. speaking
generally, shows no interest in IL
Are Fighting For Industrial Rights
The reason for this apparent po-
litical apathy Is evident. English
women since the war have been
lighting so desperately to maintain
any sort of economic equality that
they have no Strength left for any
other fight
Probably there was no postwar
reaction any more pronounced than
that against female employment In
England1 The 'anti-woman' wave
Of feeling threatens to submerge
all women have gained in the last
ten years.
Women were tricked during the
war;" said one English feminist
I'VE were led to believe we had
earned equality: But the men who
employed women did SO with the
mental reservation they would ge,
rid Of them as soon as they could
The question of equal pay fol-
equal work is exercising English
women workers most There is the
situation of men in a profession
fighting to keep the women who
work with them from obtaining ar
equal salary. The men school
teachers did that until the womer
teachers broke away formed theii
own federation and, after a Bit
ter fight, succeeded in obtaining 9
salary four-fifths Of that paid mer
employed in the same work. Eng
lish women teachers are compelled
to have the same qualifications as
the men, and to teach two extra
subjects. Formerly they taught
only in the girls schools, but in
the last few years they have beer
employed in. the schools for boy,
as we'll.
In a recent report OF the School
| Masters Association the~ womer
teachers were censoriously exhortec
to stop their fight for equal pay
else it would interfere with theil
matrimonial chances"
AT present.. >. said Miss Alice
Dawson, head of the woraen Teach.
ers' Federation of England, there
is no equality for women in thi,
'ountry. There Is no equal pay anc
10 equal opportunity either in pro.
.ession or industry"
: Where women have succeeded IL
raising the scale Of wages men have