Women and the Battlefield

Dr. Edith Summerskill, Parliamentary Secretary of the British Ministry of Food, is counted among the most active and level-headed women in Britain. And there is that which justifies this judgment: this lady admits that she is married to the most ideal husband in the whole world. She hates war intensely, and yet she is one of the most skillful of women at shooting, and during the war she demanded the admission of women to the fighting forces. She is distinguished by elegance and charm, and she is also a writer on social and medical subjects, and an author.

She has lived in a medical circle all her life, for her father was a doctor and her husband is a doctor, and she shared his profession until he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps.

She was not content to be a doctor, but felt she was in need of a wider field; and so she took to writing on the diseases of women, as a specialist in them. But medicine did not permit her to attain what she aspired to, and so she turned to the field of politics.

And we know that this field is no road strewn with roses and sweet basil, but a hard road which none succeed in crossing save those with much experience and wide knowledge—above all where a woman is concerned.

She managed to win membership of Parliament thanks to the strength of her personality and her sincerity, and to the medical help she used to give to the working women of Tottenham. And with all that, she went on practicing her profession as a doctor.

With the passage of time she managed to draw the public to her and to a hearing of her socialist ideas. She once said: I like men very much, but I am a bold woman, and I desire to establish equality between men and women.

And she has worked always for the securing of this right; during the war she likewise demanded that women enter the army and join the fighting forces.

As a doctor and a member of Parliament, she found the time needed to play an effective part in many bodies and associations: she became vice-president of the Socialist Medical Association, and president of the Married Women's Association, a valuable helper to the Food Advisory Committee, and she took part in the women's advisory body which was set up in order to guide the government as to the part women play in the war.

And with all that, she still had time enough for the pursuit of her other activities.

During the war Dr. Summerskill demanded that women be taught shooting, so that if the enemy should invade the soil of the homeland, the women might take up the rifles of their wounded men and carry on the battle. To that end she approved the organization of the women's defense corps, a movement that aims at teaching women the use of rifles, pistols, and Bren and Nermi guns.

And she concerns herself with women's duties just as she concerns herself with their rights, in equal measure. You find her, for all her absorption in her various activities during the war period, demanding that women be granted a portion of their husbands' wages.

Nor was she content with that: she has worked always for the advancement of British society and its preservation from decline—she even demanded the compulsory distribution of milk to the people without charge.

Dr. Summerskill has written two books about women between the beginning of the war and the present: the first on babies without tears, and the second on the conscription of women.

Such a program as the Doctor is trying to carry out is reckoned an enormous program, yet she will not admit it.

And finally, this woman is tall of stature, with gray eyes, attractive features, and an enlightened mind; and she is distinguished besides by elegance and grace.