Even Women Didn't Want To Give Women the Vote

Wall Street Journal ^ | MARCH 5, 2003 | CYNTHIA CROSSEN

[Mister Magoo]

"It seems to me," Jeannette Gilder wrote in 1894, "that it's a bigger feather in a woman's cap -- a brighter jewel in her crown -- to be the mother of George Washington than to be a member of Congress from the 32nd District."

[Alberta's Child]

. . . the result, according to an antisuffrage booster, would be a "race of masculine women and effeminate men and the mating of these would result in the procreation of a race of degenerates."

They really the nail on the head on that one, didn't they?

To me, the issue is not so much male/female voters but responsible/irresponsible ones. The most destructive change in voting rights in the U.S. was not the women's suffrage movement, but the extension of voting rights to all citizens regardless of whether they owned property or not.

[Under the Radar]

But tens of thousands of women also enlisted in the war against women voting, claiming that it was a slippery slope from the ballot box to depravation. If women got the vote, they would have to serve in the army and on juries. There would be fewer children but more divorce. Men would become less chivalrous and reverent of womanhood. Women would take up men's occupations, and men would take up women's occupations; the result, according to an antisuffrage booster, would be a "race of masculine women and effeminate men and the mating of these would result in the procreation of a race of degenerates."

And if women did run for office, wouldn't they invariably win? When all women can vote, wrote Goldwin Smith, "as the women slightly outnumber the men, and many men, sailors or men employed on railways or itinerants, could not go to the poll, the woman's vote would preponderate, and government would be more female than male."

How right they were...

[elbucko]

At the time, it was believed that women simply couldn't be trusted to take the long, objective view. "The female vote ... is always more impulsive and less subject to reason, and almost devoid of the sense of responsibility,"....

They certainly can't and they certainly are.....

REPEAL THE NINETEENTH AMENDMENT AND SAVE THE REPUBLIC!

Contemplate Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer, Diane Fienstien, Bella Absug & Helen Thomas. I rest my case.

[valkyrieanne]

Yes, I'm sure Margaret Thatcher would have done the Western World a far better service had she grown up to be a grocery clerk in her father's store, rather than Prime Minister of England.

[LarryM]

Thatcher is the exception that proves the rule.

[meowmeow]

England was used to having chicks in charge - with the queen thing and all.

If I could go back in time and then look into the future and see the Clintoons, I would probably be an Anti too. I have a friend who voted clintoon twice because "he seems like a nice man and the democrats want to help people."

[laotzu]

"women belonged in the home, where they could exert more political influence"

Another truth.

I am firmly in charge of my household.....entirely, & only, because my wife lets me. I've seen the grown-up's job, and I don't want it.

[Jay D. Dyson]

Not surprisingly, many men agreed that females should not vote. One of their biggest fears was that women would outlaw drinking

Not surprisingly, this did indeed come to pass.

The men's antisuffrage movement even went so far as to produce bogus statistics: "If women achieve the feministic idea and live as men do," wrote a male doctor who opposed female suffrage, "they would incur the risk of 25% more insanity than they have now."

Considering all the psychotherapeutic drugs that are geared towards women out there, I'd have to say this has come to pass as well.

If women got the vote, they would have to serve in the army and on juries. There would be fewer children but more divorce. Men would become less chivalrous and reverent of womanhood. Women would take up men's occupations, and men would take up women's occupations; the result, according to an antisuffrage booster, would be a "race of masculine women and effeminate men and the mating of these would result in the procreation of a race of degenerates."

This definitely came to pass. Only the cretins who made it possible (like NOW) have made it popular to blame all men for this sad state of affairs.

It's a crazy world...some things just make it crazier.

-Jay

[LaraCroft]

I agree.. all the women who voted for clinton 'because he was so cute' just turn my stomache.

Emotion, irrationality, doing thing like voting based on FEELINGS?

shudder

[MineralMan]

"Thatcher is the exception that proves the rule.
"

One of the all-time stupidest cliches. It makes no logical sense whatever, yet it's called up whenever a rule is found to be wrong. Feh!

[Question_Assumptions]

Not surprisingly, many men agreed that females should not vote. One of their biggest fears was that women would outlaw drinking, and various breweries supported antisuffrage political candidates.

Hmmmm. Refresh my memory but I seem to remember and amendment or two...

I love it when articles quote critics who got it right but they rarely point out how right they got it. There was a show on movies that talked about how almost all of the objections raised by critics of the movie rating system were proved right within a decade. I also remember watching a show about the American Revolution where almost everything that the critics of a Federal government had to say came true.

[RonF]

One of the all-time stupidest cliches. It makes no logical sense whatever, yet it's called up whenever a rule is found to be wrong. Feh!

Because it depends on what is now an archaic definition for the word "prove". To "prove" something once meant to "test" it. "The exception that tests the rule" makes a lot more sense, although it's perhaps not well applied in the case given by the previous poster.

[Teacher317]

The most destructive change in voting rights in the U.S. was not the women's suffrage movement, but the extension of voting rights to all citizens regardless of whether they owned property or not.

Today, thanks in part to wealth not being stored in land as well as the Income Tax, the proper limit should be those who contribute a net amount to the treasury. We are getting ready to witness the day when the 51% who pay nothing can always outvote the 49% who do, and the ones who contributed nothing will determine how those proceeds are allocated... and it won't be surprising when they go mostly towards those 51%.

[laotzu]

"One of the all-time stupidest cliches. It makes no logical sense whatever..."

All rules have exceptions. As this is always true; having an exception is part of what defines a rule.

A rule that does not have an exception, is a principle.

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

bttt

[deziner]

So why did MEN vote for Clinton? He couldn't have gotten into office without the male vote.

[MineralMan]

"All rules have exceptions. As this is always true; having an exception is part of what defines a rule.

A rule that does not have an exception, is a principle."

Nonsense! Sorry, but it's nonsense. All rules do _not_ have exceptions. An exception negates the rule; it doesn't prove the rule. You have it just backwards. Principles have exceptions, for certain. We're seeing a lot of those exceptions to principles these days.

[xsmommy]

this is your kind of thread.