CHAPTER XIX.
Englishwomen and the Politics of the Day.
At the date of our story, 189—, there were still nominally three great political parties in England, the Jingoes, the Shillyshallies, and the Thoroughgoers. The power of the last-named had been long in abeyance, but was now coming to the front with such impetus that it promised shortly to sway the national legislature exclusively, so that there remained little chance for the other two parties to regain their footing except by coalition.
This change in the balance of power had considerably furthered the cause of women’s rights. The Married Women’s Property Act, passed some dozen or fifteen years before, had been a move in the right direction, and latterly the suffrage had been extended to women possessing the same qualifications to vote as men. However, this plausible form of enfranchisement was in reality one-sided; it did not in practice bring the number of enfranchised females in the kingdom anywhere near that of enfranchised males, and the still surviving disabilities of women in other matters went far to neutralise the partial equality of the sexes in this one. Still it was the edge of the wedge inserted in the old fabric, and in the normal course of things the rest of the desired reforms should have followed rapidly. Already in some of the professions, notably in that of medicine, the female in-
