The Drama of Three Hundred and Sixty Five Days/The Part Played by Woman
THE PART PLAYED BY WOMAN
The latest and perhaps the most vivid of the
flashes as of lightning which have revealed the
drama of the past 365 days has shown us the
part played by woman. What a part that has
been! Nearly always in the histories of the
great world-wars of the past the sympathy of the
spectator has been more or less diverted from
the unrecorded martyrdom of the myriads of
forgotten women who have lost sons and husbands
by the machinations of the few vain
and selfish women who have governed continents
by playing upon the passions of men. Thank
God, there has been nothing of that kind in
this case. On the contrary, woman's part in
this red year of the war has been one of purity,
sacrifice, and undivided glory.
Towards the end of it we saw a procession through the streets of London of 30,000 women who had come out to ask for the right to serve the State. I do not envy the man who, having eyes to see, a heart to feel, and a mind to comprehend, was able to look on that sight unmoved. Every class of woman was represented there, the gently- born, the educated, and the tenderly-nurtured, as well as the humbly-born, the uneducated, and the heavily-burdened, the woman with the delicate, spiritual face, as well as the woman with the face hardened by toil. And they were marching together, side by side, with all the barriers broken down. It was not so much a procession of British women as a demonstration of British womanhood, and it seemed to say, "We hate war as no man can ever hate it, but it has been forced upon us all, so we, too, want to take our share in it."