Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/79

 responsible than any other thing for the present privileges of women in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. In these countries, too, many of the hampering traditions which have so long bound the women of Great Britain and Northern Europe have been lacking. Both Houses of Parliament in all these countries are elected. In none of them is one religious denomination elevated by the State at the expense of all the others, as in this country. There is no territorial-magnate class, whose families have held the land for generations, and, incidentally, the human souls upon the land.

To this extent, therefore, the battle for women's freedom has been easier, for the atmosphere has been of the very breath of freedom, and no foolish respect for outworn theories and institutions has had the power to stop the onward march of progress.

Again the stern fight with savage nature, whether in the form of hard soil, or cruel drought, or native tribes, has drawn men and women nearer to each other in the bonds of a common need, and given a chance of growth to the sense of fairplay and justice, which is present, in however rudimentary a form, in the breasts of most.

Hence it is not surprising to learn that the women of Australia and New Zealand share with the men all voting powers.