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WOMEN'S INTEREST IN DOMESTIC POLITICS
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sense of responsibility on the part of the State towards the younger generation. But in adopting these reforms the State is encroaching on the traditional sphere of women, and a Government controlled solely by men, and almost exclusively administered by them, may, when dealing with children and the peculiar problems of women's lives, make very serious blunders. For instance, every one is coming now to admit that our system of elementary education did for many years impose, and in some cases still continues to impose on children of five and six a discipline that is not merely not beneficial but in some cases actually hurtful to the little undeveloped minds and movement-craving bodies. Many declare, too, that a serious blunder has been made in dealing with the question of trained midwives, and that since after 1910 none but properly qualified midwives will be allowed to practise, while yet no attempt is being made to provide the necessary training at a fee within the means of the women who undertake this work, we shall be faced with a serious deficiency in the number of properly-trained women (a question of considerable importance, one may note in passing, in connection with the problem of infantile mortality). In all these matters there is need of the woman's standpoint as well as the man's. And we desire the right of voting not that we may cease to be women, but because we are women, and because Parliament, chosen at present by men alone, is making laws that must influence very closely our work, the training of children and the conduct of home-life. It is our very womanhood with its inborn