WHERE WOMEN VOTE 



489 



committee elected by a mass-meeting to 

 manage the details of the strike were 

 women. 



The first action taken by the committee 

 was to close all the liquor shops, saloons, 

 and bar-rooms, and to organize a volun- 

 teer police force to keep order. After 

 the second day the markets were re- 

 opened and the strikers w^ere not allowed 

 to cut off the water supply. In short, 

 the strike was managed in a most orderly 

 and systematic way, and no outrages of 

 any sort were committed. 



During the course of the strike numer- 

 ous deputations were sent with petitions 

 to the Governor General, and in each 

 deputation there were women members. 

 Thus, even in moments of grave political 

 danger and at times when the utmost 

 moderation and foresight were needed, 

 the Finns were not afraid to trust their 

 women. 



The strike was ended by an imperial 

 manifesto issued on November 4, 1905, 

 which reinstated Finland in its earlier 

 rights, and in the manifesto universal 

 suffrage was spoken of as a reform that 

 might soon be realized. This gave a 

 great impetus to the work among the 

 women. They were determined that 

 when the question of the suffrage came 

 up for settlement, universal suffrage 

 should be granted to them as well as to 

 the men. Both of the women's associa- 

 tions arranged numberless lectures and 

 meetings. More than 300 women's meet- 

 ings were held in different parts of the 

 country. At one large meeting, called 

 by the "union" on December 2, 1905, 

 there were representatives from 122 dif- 

 ferent places, many communes sending 

 two. three, and four representatives in 

 order that all social groups and all shades 

 of opinion might be represented.* 



W^HEN WOMEN ASKED FOR SUFFRAGE IT 



W' AS GRANTED AS A MATTER 



OF COURSE 



This was only one of a number of 

 similar meetings. Many of the young 

 women students in the University trav- 



* "Nylid"' for November, I905- 



eled about the country lecturing on 

 woman suft'rage, and there were also 

 numerous meetings arranged and led by 

 peasant women. 



Curiously enough there was almost no 

 opposition to the measure, and when it 

 came before the Representation Reform 

 Committee only two members voted 

 against it, and in the Senate also there 

 were only two counter votes. Then the 

 question was put before the Diet, and 

 was included in the imperial proposal 

 submitted to the Czar and signed by him 

 on the 29th of May, 1906. 



The Constitution Committee within the 

 Diet recommended women's political suf- 

 frage and eligibility for the following 

 reasons: "At present women in Finland 

 get exactly the same education as men, 

 even in the same schools, since co-edvica- 

 tion has been adopted in wide circles. 

 Women in our days are engaged side by 

 side with men in many different lines of 

 work, and the experience from these 

 ordinary fields of labor, as well as from 

 women's participation in social work and 

 in philanthropy, is such that there is no 

 reason to fear that women should not 

 use their suffrage as well as men. 

 Finally, women themselves have shown 

 a strong desire to get it."* 



Thus at the time that the suffrage was 

 extended to women it seemed so natural 

 and inevitable that every one received 

 the news quite calmly, and even at the 

 time of the elections there were no evi- 

 dences of popular excitement, though by 

 the change from limited to universal suf- 

 frage the electorate was suddenly in- 

 creased from 10.000 to 1.500,000. The 

 extreme orderliness, even on the two- 

 election days, was a matter of great sur- 

 prise to all the foreign correspondents., 

 who seemed to regard it as quite an in- 

 comprehensible state of affairs. 



The various women's clubs and 

 women's associations played an important 

 role at the time of the elections and 

 immediately before. They used every 

 effort to encourage women who could 

 speak well to go about and address meet- 



* "Englishwoman's Review." 1907. 



