cumstances, to return to the Service. Should any other misfortune
overtake her, or should she for any other reason wish to become
economically independent, she is not allowed to earn her living by
means of her own profession of Civil Servant. This rule of the Service
undoubtedly acts as a deterrent to marriage for, according to the
statistics published, only about 3 per cent. of the whole female staff
annually leave to be married. It need hardly be pointed out that
in the present state of the law of the land, when no portion of a
husband's income is secured to his wife as a right, a woman will not
lightly throw up her means of livelihood with no prospect of returning
to it should she so desire, in order to take her chance of happiness
with a man whom the law permits to hold her in subjection body and
soul. There is another aspect of the question: Women Civil Servants
have to pass a strict medical examination before entering the Service;
they have to furnish satisfactory evidence of respectability, of the
health of their antecedents, and of a certain standard of education.
They are therefore what is known as "selected lives": if these women
are forced to remain celibate as a condition of their employment,
it is a distinct loss to the nation of a specially selected class
of potential mothers. In these days, when the declining birthrate is
causing some concern to our statesmen, it would surely be worth their
while to consider how far they are themselves contributing to the
condition of affairs which they deplore, by maintaining this rigid
regulation for the sake of a worn-out sentiment. The compulsory
resignation on marriage is a definite wrong both to the women
concerned and to the community at large, for women of selected health
and intellect are discouraged from marriage by this regulation.
Pending the final settlement of this question which is likely to be a
very controversial one, the difficulty might be met by a modification
of the existing rule allowing married women who have been Civil
Servants to return to their employment should they again desire to
earn their own living by means of the only profession for which they
have qualified.

Women in the Civil Service are in a peculiar position with regard
to their rights as citizens. They are handicapped by all the rules
governing the political action of men, while they are without the
means of maintaining their status as wage-earners. Although they
are prohibited by r