Sir Almroth Wright’s Case Against Women Suffrage. Answered by Bernard Shaw. Irish Women’s Suffrage Federation, Dublin. Cork: Shandon Printing Works, [1913]. Pp 8. Publisher’s white wrappers lettered in black. A very good copy of this fragile publication.

Reprinted from The New Statesman by kind permission of the editor and Mr. Bernard Shaw, for the Irishwomen’s Suffrage Federation, 29 South Anne Street, Dublin.

Shaw’s reply to Almroth Wright’s book ‘The Unexpurgated Case Against Woman Suffrage’ (1913). Wright was strongly opposed to women’s suffrage. He argued that women’s brains were innately different from men’s and were not constituted to deal with social and public issues. His arguments were most fully expounded in his book.

Wright was a friend of his fellow Irishman George Bernard Shaw. He was immortalised as Sir Colenso Ridgeon in the play The Doctor’s Dilemma written in 1906. Despite their friendship Shaw, who campaigned for women’s suffrage, strongly disagreed with Wright about women’s brains and dismissed his views on the subject as absurd.

Scarce piece of Irish Surrfage ephemera.