Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/109

 partly because public opinion counted for less with them than it does to-day, it was possible for a clever, earnest woman to have her appeal listened to by statesmen and to accomplish more through her own personality than to-day, when every politician weighs his actions with a view to retaining the votes of his constituents.

The democratic franchise, then, was responsible more than anything else for the creation of a new class of reformers, women who now seek to influence authority by creating organisations which, in their turn, help to form the public opinion upon which reform depends. The work of these women may be looked for in the organisations which stand for temperance, purity, and peace; and in those which are against sweating, bad housing, unemployment, and under-feeding. Typical women reformers of this class, most of whom are alive to-day, are the Countess Dowager of Carlisle, President of the British Women's Temperance Association; Miss Octavia Hill, whose work for the slum-dweller is so widely-known and appreciated; the Duchess of Marlboro', advocate of lodging-houses for women; and the Hon. Mrs Bertrand Russell, whose Schools for Mothers (she was one of the pioneers of the idea) have been such a boon to thousands of ignorant and helpless young mothers amongst the poor. But to