follows:—"The membership of the Guild being composed mainly of married working-women, the Guild could only be satisfied with a measure which would enfranchise this class of women. But while womanhood (and therefore adult) suffrage is the goal, the Guild leaves itself free to support any measure which would be a step in the direction of this goal."
Later resolutions demanded votes for women without defining the method of enfranchisement, and the united statement and the deputation to the Prime Minister both took this line. This spring the Committees of 246 Branches, with over 14,000 members, or seven-twelfths of the membership, have signed a declaration, circulated in some haste, that "We, the undersigned, desire the right to vote in Parliamentary Elections, and are in favour of the broadest measure possible which will give the vote to married and single working-women."
As it was believed that a Women's Enfranchisement Bill on the old lines would probably be introduced at the earliest opportunity, the General Secretary of the Guild wrote to the newspapers to propose a compromise which would enfranchise Guild members and might be accepted by the supporters both of limited and of adult suffrage. The suggestion was to give the vote to married women whose husbands had the occupier or lodger vote, as well as to women possessing the existing men's qualifications.[1]
- ↑ The proposal was drafted as an amendment to Mr. Keir Hardie's Women's Enfranchisement Bill in the following form:—"Provided that if husband and wife are living together
