Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/132

 The work of local governing bodies is in the nature of collective house-keeping. Children and education, health and sanitation, the provision of food and medicine, the care and control of the sick, have always been held to be within the province of the woman. These matters are all included in the work of District, Borough, and County Councils. A few words in detail about the powers and duties of the various public bodies to which women are eligible will show with distinctness the desirability of having women representatives to help in the administration of local affairs. One of the most important of a County Council's duties is the provision of lunatic asylums for pauper lunatics within their area. In 1911 there were 70,000 female lunatics controlled by the County Councils of the country. In some County Council areas there are homes for inebriate women. Obviously women councillors could be of the greatest service in looking after not only the pauper women lunatics and the poor women victims of the drink habit who come under the public care, but also the female attendants who have to look after them. Pauper lunatics are under the charge of eight paid and four unpaid Lunacy Commissioners. There is nothing in the law to prevent the appointment of a woman to the post of either paid or unpaid Commissioner, but at the present moment