310 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

Government. The ratepayers, also, would feel less respect fi
paid Councillors, and this sentiment is logical enough when tl
work can reasonably be done in spare time. The duties of
Mayor justify a salary, and expenses for special work, such
representing th$ authority at a conference, should be pa£d.
might be useful to compel authorities to use their power to ma
these payments; for if a town has a tradition of non-payment3
Councillor who is not well-off will have either to decline sor
.duties, or to put himself in the invidious position of asking to
paid for that which his predecessors have done for nothing. T
non-payment of members of the largest authorities is a serio
problem. It frequently'restricts membership to those of inc
pendent means, those who can control their hours of work, a
some married women.

Women, both married and unmarried, play a larger part
local Government than in any other political field. This is pat
because the system of unpaid Councillors could not work with*
drawing on this large supply of talented energy, but there
other important reasons. The organs of local Government w
created at a time when the prejudice against women in put
affairs was weakening, and have been charged with work in wh
women have a special interest. Despite recent changes in so<
habits, the work of the majority of women is the running c
home and the care of children. Any deficiencies in the housi
health, or education services, are therefore more immediai
apparent to women, and more constantly present in their mir
There has been much vague theorising, unsupported by fa
about the proper sphere for women. Professor Dicey, for exam;
in his famous work Law of the Constitution, justified the w;
holding of a Parliamentary vote from women on the ground 1
such a restriction "conforms to the nature of things". '.
without making this, or any similar unproved assumption, one i
reasonably conclude that most women will be more interested
the domestic and social services which preoccupy local authorit
than in, say, the organisation of industry, or policy with reg