Miss Rathbone stated that she would not be satisfied until women represented 50 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons.
Lady Astor, MP, who was welcomed by the meeting as "the mother of the House," expressed strong indignation that Miss Margaret Bondfield was not in the Cabinet, particularly when they noted some of those who had been selected. But, on the whole, she thought it was a good Cabinet. The exclusion of Miss Bondfield she regarded as a proof that men, without knowing it, no matter to what party they belonged, had a subconscious prejudice against women as soon as they got inside the House of Commons. She urged the National Union if they wanted more women in Parliament to do their propaganda work in the constituencies, and to bring pressure in that way on members, who always did first what their constituencies wanted, no matter what promise they might have made to women's societies.
Lady Terrington said eight women were far too few to have in Parliament. No matter to what party they belonged, the women members were going to stand together on questions affecting women and children. Dealing with the preliminary spade-work before the General Election, Lady Terrington said that women coming into a constituency ought to come to help and not to hinder. She suffered great annoyance during the election from organised interruptions by women belonging to a party opposed to her.
Miss Jewson said her work on behalf of woman suffrage had been of great value to her during the General Election. She urged the conference to find some means of reaching the lonely women factory workers and shop assistants, whose lives were dreary, apart from their work.
