On This Day, 8 March 1918

Birmingham Daily Gazette

Friday 8 March 1918

WINNING THE VOTE FOR WOMEN

MRS. OSLER ON THE FUTURE

Members and friends of the Birmingham Women’s Suffrage Society filled the Grosvenor Room of the Grand Hotel last night on the occasion of a conversazione to celebrate the winning of the franchise. Mrs. A. C. Osler, the central figure among many who have taken distinguished part in the long and often apparently hopeless struggle for the vote, welcomed the guests, and was presented with a charming bouquet. Everyone present felt that this lady was entitled, after forty-five years’ local and national effort in the cause, to the complete satisfaction she so fittingly expressed.

The Need for Co-operation.

“Often,” she said in the course of an excellent speech on the present position of women in relation to politics and social service, “ I permitted myself to dream of a gathering like this. But I never thought our dream of victory would be realised in such a world of misery, chaos and suffering as we see around us to-day. The condition of the world almost forbids us rejoice, but we cannot overlook the fact that wars generate tremendous evils and are always followed by other evils which touch the very basis of our feelings as women, evils which strike at the sanctity of our homes and our children and the honour and faith of humanity. To overcome these evils the co-operation of women, as well as men, is necessary, and I hope no one has come here merely to rejoice over the end of the struggle. We meet to-night to dedicate ourselves to still more important and more needy battles for good against evil.

A Great Awakening.

“There are many political questions of enormous interest to women which we must study. Already there has been a great awakening among women in consequence of the winning of the vote. We shall find how very much the different political parties are alive to the importance of gaining our allegiance, but I hope shall all keep closely in touch with our own movement, for it is to women that chiefly owe the vote. While we can never discharge our debt to the few splendid and chivalrous men who have stood by us all through the struggle, we must never forget what we owe to the devotion, patience, perseverance and faithfulness of those pioneer women who, in the early days of the fight, had to face ridicule, discredit, and sometimes danger.

“In the moment of our rejoicing and triumph,” Mrs. Osler added, “ it is to those women and to their memory that we should offer our tribute, gratitude, and homage, and pray that we might be worthy of them all our lives.”