Page:The Future of the Women's Movement.djvu/70

 or preoccupation of the voters and their representatives. &hellip; Nor can any impartial critic maintain that, even at the present day, the desires of women, about matters in which they are vitally concerned, obtain from Parliament all the attention they deserve. &hellip; Despotism is none the less trying because it may be dictated by philanthropy, and the benevolence of workmen which protects women from overwork is not quite above suspicion when it coincides with the desire of artisans to protect themselves from female competition." No suffragist could put the argument better than this candid anti-suffragist.

How is it possible for a man to assert that he knows what a woman feels and wants as well as she herself? He would have to be more than man! Even women, who spend their lives in studying men, do not make the claim that they can feel a man's passions as he can; and, in another mood, the man who claims to be the arbiter of a woman's life will rail at her incomprehensible and fickle nature. "But women have tongues and know only too well how to use them! We may consult with women and be advised by them," say the reactionaries. "Yes. And also you may not," is the reply. Professor Dicey makes much of the distinction between civil, as distinct from political, rights. He speaks of reconciling his "enthusiasm for everything which promotes the personal freedom and education of women with the strenuous denial to them of any share in sovereign power." But the male electorate is not all so enlightened as Professor Dicey, and