As with every other human function, there are two departments of politics. And the House of Commons represents man's.
It stands for all that is best accomplished politically by his highly-specialised order of brain; by his concrete energy and initiative, his justice and rationalism, his power of administration, and his uncompromising sternness—pitilessness, if need be—to deal with and to punish crime and aggression, national and international. It stands, in a word, for that virile outlook and the virile grip in Statesmanship which are indispensable to materialise a people's prosperity and to pioneer its progress. These are the functions of men. Just as the Army and Navy, Science and Commerce, are the functions of men. Because the male bent and intellect are those best fitted to raise these developments to their highest and most effective issues, just as the male physique and energy are best fitted to achieve these issues in material results.
Had anything been needed to emphasise the values of such virile characteristics in the administration of a nation's policy, the War furnished it. And the many blunders and vacillations marring the conduct of the War emphasised the lack of these invaluable masculine qualities in the concurrent House of Commons. Army, Navy, and Air-Services proved their manhood doughtily in their respective provinces. Had they been supplemented by an equally virile Statesmanship, the War, having begun, would have been brought to a speedy termination. In point of fact, it would never have begun.
If now, our British politics are already so lacking in the manly ability and grip indispensable to national permanence and progress, the presence of women in Parliament can but further emasculate these. It may be said that some women outside the House are more male of mind and mode (not to speak of muscle) than are some men inside. But this is reason, surely, for replacing these weak males by stronger ones, rather than for adulterating British statesmanship with Femaleness.
The presence of a masculine woman in a house—whether this be writ with a small or a capital letter—far from stiffening the manly calibre of weak men in it, only further enervates and paralyses them. To serve on a committee of mixed sex is to realise this.
Women should be represented in the counsels of the nation—but not in the councils of men. They should have a House of their own, wherein to foster the interests of women and children mainly, as well as to further The Humanities and The Moralities; which are, at the same time, woman's true political sphere and her chiefest concern—because she and the child most suffer from failures thereof. Thus, the House of Men would be relieved of problems their sex is unqualified to deal with. While more time and energy would be left them to dispose of affairs they are best fitted to administer.
As already pointed out, the all-potent factor of Sex intervening, members of neither sex are capable of doing their best work while in association with the other. Sex-rivalries are stirred, or sex-antagonisms. Either of which range the sexes on opposite sides; thus precluding amicable co-operation. Or they engender sex-ascendancy. Which, making one sex dominate or defer to the other, precludes intelligent co-operation. Through all, moreover, only too often run threads of intrigue, to entangle and hamper the powers of both.
British politics have notably declined since woman's incursion therein. British commerce, once supreme among the nations, has notably declined since women entered business-houses. Good and thorough work demands, beyond all things, undivided concentration of the powers upon it. And for nine persons out of ten, this concentration is impossible while in the presence of members of the opposite sex. And emphatically this is true of the male, since woman exercises a hypnotic, and, accordingly, an enervating influence upon him. Worse still, he poses for her: becoming meretricious and insincere. It is held by some that women in Parliament might elevate the codes and modes of latter-day politics, many of our best men withholding themselves therefrom because of bad odour imparted by self-seeking and unscrupulous politicians.
But let us keep our House of Commons a House of men, and make it representative of the nation's finest manhood. It is the first and foremost function of the sex, the way of national success and progress. And just as the presence of women would blunt the pioneering spirit and cripple the action of a party of Arctic explorers, so women in the House must blunt the enterprise and hamper the exploits of Statesmanship.