Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/141

 The concerns of the school children and the women school teachers touch her most deeply perhaps—and the severest critic of feminism would scarcely dare to risk his reputation for ordinary intelligence by saying that this sphere was not a suitable one for a woman. Lighting, ventilation, the provision of suitable apparatus, the appointment of suitable teachers, the hearing of those teachers' complaints, suggestions, and plans for their scholars; schools for defective children, higher education, syllabuses, wages and salaries—all these things make up the concern of a member of the Education Committee; and since the majority of school children are girls and the majority of elementary school teachers are women, the Education Committee of every Education Authority should never be without women members. The law, indeed, provides that a certain proportion shall be women.

A new sphere of work has been opened to women by the creation of public positions under Parliament and the local executives. Women Inspectors of Factories have been appointed by the Home Office to examine the conditions of work in the nation's workshops and factories. They are required to travel about the country and pay visits to the factories to discover if the machinery is tended with due regard to the safety of the