But these enthusiastic would-be housecleaners fail to take one point into consideration, which is, that the ballot does not clean streets, nor provide more seats in schoolhouses, nor lighten dark tenements, nor furnish pure milk, nor stop child labor, nor administer justice.
Women claim they want the vote so they can make society better. But the vote does not clean streets, expand schools, improve tenements, or ensure healthy food. The advocates of woman suffrage who cling to this idea, which was prevalent at the time of the French Revolution, and even half a century ago, that the ballot in itself is a panacea for all existing evils and a short cut to the solution of government problems, are not progressive, but are in reality behind the times as students of government.
Suffragists support an old-fashioned belief that the vote will solve everything. Men who are interested in social reforms—and their number is legion—have found they could not bring about these essential reforms by merely voting on Election Day, and that is the reason they have organized all kinds of commissions and committees to consider the question of child labor, the care of dependent children and kindred subjects, from an economic and humanitarian point of view in order to educate and stimulate public opinion to a more intelligent and comprehensive understanding of these questions.
Even men, who can vote, know that they cannot make changes through voting. They realize that public opinion must first create a demand for a law, and afterwards enforce it in order to make the law effective. In this task of moulding and stimulating public opinion woman plays a great and important part—never greater than at the present day.
In appointive positions, as members of educational, philanthropic and reformatory boards, which deal directly with the needs of the unfortunate of both sexes, individual women of judgment and ability who are free from other obligations can render valuable service to the city or state.
Men and women who organize outside of politics can influence lawmakers. Women can work with men and hold appointed positions that make a difference. Mayor Gaynor has appointed several women as members of the Board of Education, and the borough presidents have also appointed women on most of the local school boards. Women are also members of various state boards and receive such appointments from the Governor. Two women were members of the Massachusetts Commission appointed to consider the question of establishing minimum wage boards in that state.
Two women also served on the Connecticut Industrial Commission to investigate the conditions of wage earning women and minors, which has just made its report to the Connecticut General Assembly.
Women sit on many important boards and committees in state and local government. Volunteer organizations and leagues have been very influential in making changes in society.
The State Charities Aid Association, which was established in , is responsible for much legislation along the lines of social welfare. The first training school for nurses in this country was established through the efforts of this association. During recent years it has secured the establishment of tuberculosis dispensaries all through the state, as well as agencies for the care of dependent children. The State Charities Aid Association is an example of an organization that helped in the areas of public health and childcare.
The women who are opposed to woman suffrage are in hearty sympathy with all lines of constructive social reform, and they are confident that they can do their work better along these lines because they are outside of politics. As non-partisan citizens, untrammeled by party affiliations or obligations, they can go before any legislative committee or municipal organization and ask for the passage of any measure, and their request will be listened to on the merits of the case, and not because they have any political axe to grind or because they voted with this or that party at the last election.
Women who are opposed to woman suffrage believe in social reform. However, they believe that they can accomplish more through organizing outside the official political system. I believe we would lose immeasurably if this power were taken from us for we would then become but another spoke in the wheel of political machinery.
Women would lose power if they gained the right to vote. They are better off outside of politics. For more about the arguments against suffrage, watch the video below. About the Document. However, as Lucinda Desha Robb suggests, "one of the most important lessons of the woman suffrage movement may be the relative unimportance of suffrage all by itself" , The early suffragists did not see voting privileges as their primary goal; rather they saw suffrage as an opportunity to participate more fully in the public affairs of society through political engagement and civic action Kraditor In the Declaration of Sentiments, Stanton proposed twelve resolutions, of which woman's enfranchisement was just one.
While many of her contemporaries initially felt that woman's suffrage was inconceivable, Stanton and Anthony soon saw that achievement of their other goals regarding women's rights was only possible through suffrage and the political advances and allies they would make along the way Carter ; Weatherford Though they faced obstacles and hardships, Robb points out,.
The years of hard work women put into making suffrage a reality taught them the full potential of democracy and how to employ that potential. They learned grassroots skills and gained the political credentials that made them more effective and laid the groundwork for their increasing participation in government. The ripple effect of the woman's suffrage movement on subsequent generations is evident in a range of educational, civil rights, and health care reforms, as well as in the growing number of women elected to governmental positions Hossell The woman suffrage movement has promoted human welfare in numerous ways.
It has stimulated social and political reform through individual and group civil action. Local community organizations were formed and gained membership.
The movement also led to the development of non-partisan organizations such as the League of Women Voters, which helps to educate women so that they may be informed voters and also prompts women to exercise their right to vote-a privilege many people today take for granted. During the early part of the suffrage movement, suffragists and abolitionists worked together closely to fight for universal suffrage: the right to vote for all adult persons regardless of race, religion, or gender.
Advocates for women's rights also developed intimate ties to supporters of the temperance movement, who sought to deter the abuse of alcohol and promote greater familial responsibilities among married men. Women were active participants as well in Progressivism, the movement that sought to address such social issues as worker safety and food and drug laws Hossell In addition, through the suffrage movement, women became more skilled at grassroots organization, which led to greater involvement in their local, state, and national communities Robb Financial contributions to the movement aside, the time and energy suffragists dedicated to advancing their cause and improving society clearly demonstrate the links between the woman's suffrage movement and the philanthropic sector.
A number of commonly understood terms or ideas related to woman suffrage exist in our vocabulary. Among them are feminism , inequality , sexism , and women's rights. In addition, other ideas bear the need for more explanation or historical context:. Abolition : The opposition and eradication of slavery.
The anti-slavery or abolitionist movement was established in with the formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia, although anti-slavery sentiment predated the formation of the republic Library of Congress. Following the U. Constitution, which officially abolished slavery. Enfranchisement : To endow a person with the rights of citizenship, particularly the right to vote.
Equal rights : Those benefits and privileges that are due to a person by law, tradition, or nature without discrimination, specifically in regard to one's sex. Passage of the Nineteenth Amendment marked the first specific written guarantee of women's equal rights in the Constitution.
However, in response to the many laws and practices at work and in society that still perpetuated the unequal treatment between men and women, Alice Paul introduced the Equal Rights Amendment ERA in The ERA advocated for the equal application of the Constitution to all citizens to ensure freedom from discrimination based on sex. Grassroots advocacy : Active support for something such as a policy, an idea or cause spearheaded by people or society at a local level rather than as a result of major political activity.
Progressivism : The principles and practices of political progressives. Persons in support of progressivism promote progress toward better conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods.
Efforts made by Progressives during the early s led to the establishment of laws governing child labor and food and drug safety Hossell In the simplest terms, prohibition refers to restrictions against the sale of alcohol; however, prohibition also refers to the period during which the Eighteenth Amendment which outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages was in force in the United States. In , prohibition of alcohol was repealed by passage of the Twenty-first Amendment.
Voting rights : The ability of U. Despite passage of the Fifteenth Amendment which prohibited state and federal governments from denying citizens the ballot on the basis of race Blacks and other minorities continued to experience resistance by state officials who were unwilling to enforce the amendment.
In , President Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act, "generally considered the most successful piece of civil rights legislation ever adopted by the United States Congress" U. Department of Justice. The Act systematizes and actualizes the Fifteenth Amendment's permanent guarantee that no person shall be denied the right to vote on account of race or color. Several key figures in the woman's suffrage movement are central to its success. Anthony Yet, other individuals have played equally important roles in the advocacy of women's enfranchisement.
Among these are:. Catt was a talented speaker and active figure in the international suffrage movement. Alice Paul : A Quaker suffragist, Paul is considered one of the leading figures responsible for the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. Alice Paul continued -later evolved into the National Woman's Party.
Following the passage of woman's suffrage, Paul became involved in the struggle to introduce and pass an Equal Rights Amendment, also known as the Lucretia Mott Amendment Kraditor ; also see Women's History. Lucy Stone : A prominent abolitionist and one of the most important figures in the first generation of suffragists.
Known for her liberal marriage to Henry B. Blackwell , Lucy headed the American Woman Suffrage Association and was the mother of Alice Stone Blackwell , who would later be called "the foremost suffragist propagandist" Kraditor , Stanton, Anthony, and others were not avid supporters of black suffrage because of fear it would lessen their chances of obtaining voting rights for women Weatherford ; Hossell It employed more militant tactics to agitate for the vote.
They stood vigil at the White House, demonstrating in silence six days a week for nearly three years. Many of the sentinels were arrested and jailed in deplorable conditions. Some incarcerated women went on hunger strikes and endured forced feedings. The Sentinels' treatment gained greater sympathy for women's suffrage, and the courts later dismissed all charges against them.
When New York adopted woman suffrage in and President Woodrow Wilson changed his position to support an amendment in , the political balance began to shift in favor of the vote for women. There was still strong opposition to enfranchising women, however, as illustrated by petitions from anti-suffrage groups. Eventually suffragists won the political support necessary for ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U. For 42 years, the measure had been introduced at every session of Congress, but ignored or voted down.
It finally passed Congress in and went to the states for ratification. In May, the House of Representatives passed it by a vote of to 90; two weeks later, the Senate approved it 56 to Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan were the first states to ratify it. On August 18, , it appeared that Tennessee had ratified the amendment — the result of a change of vote by 24 year-old legislator Harry Burn at the insistence of his elderly mother.
But those against the amendment managed to delay official ratification. Anti-suffrage legislators fled the state to avoid a quorum, and their associates held massive anti-suffrage rallies and attempted to convince pro-suffrage legislators to oppose ratification. However, Tennessee reaffirmed its vote and delivered the crucial 36th ratification necessary for final adoption. While decades of struggle to include African Americans and other minority women in the promise of voting rights remained, the face of the American electorate had changed forever.
Materials created by the National Archives and Records Administration are in the public domain. Top Skip to main content. In this respect, then, to just what extent it is idle to conjecture, woman suffrage might at present, in this country, have an injurious effect on her ideals and life.
I do not wish to magnify this danger, nor to underrate the benefit which the franchise would confer on women who have both opportunity and disposition to make the most of it. Its influence in enlarging their range of thought, and in giving them one more common interest with men, would be one certain good result of their enfranchisement; but it would be realized by comparatively few.
To the majority, suffrage would be only a burdensome duty, sometimes ill performed, more often neglected. An exaggerated conception of the power in the ballot would, however, appear most conspicuously in attempts at legislation.
The much-vaunted superior morality of women is called on to enact reform. Its success even in enacting would fall short of expectation, and in enforcing would be still less. It is a reflection on human nature, they say. It is not yet a mere company of ladies and gentlemen, whose laws are only methods of procedure, and so, in a sense, automatic. Laws are still, for the most part, restraints on human depravity, and those who violate them will doubtless continue in their old habit of escaping the consequences if they can.
Offenses are of two very different sorts. In one case there are two parties, injurer and injured, the latter interested in exposure. In the other there is a single offender, or two conspiring offenders, both interested in concealment from the public at large. Violence against persons and private property belongs in the first list; bribery and illegal liquor-selling are in the second. Laws against the first class of offenses are comparatively easy to enforce, while those against the second class furnish a far more difficult problem.
But it is chiefly in the case of this second class that women propose to accomplish their good work, and they are fond of arguing by analogy from the first class that their edicts could be maintained; failing to realize that between laws so unlike no analogy is admissible.
Yet though, as is sometimes urged, women could not serve on the police and militia to maintain their authority, it is probably true that their laws would be disregarded, not out of contempt for the physical weakness of the sex supposed to have passed them, but simply in contempt for the laws themselves. It is not more laws, but better enforcement of those we have, that is wanted.
Accordingly, if the right of suffrage is to be extended to women, it should be given first for executive rather than for legislative officers. The moral earnestness that would be expended in vain in making laws might accomplish much good in enforcing them. Then, when women prove their ability to elect officials who succeed in exacting from a perverse generation all the goodness at present legally required of it, they will have a proud claim to a share in legislation as well.
At present it appears to be their plan of campaign, in States where local option exists, to ask for the ballot on the license question by virtue of their interest in the home. Moreover, as they beset legislatures with all the importunity of the woman in the parable of the unjust judge, they have a fair chance to gain their request from temporizing Solons.
Yet it is no less dangerous than inconsistent to let women vote No license, while leaving them without a voice in the appointment of officers to enforce it; and this they know very well.
As soon as their first petition is granted they will have ready a second, this time for the ballot in elections of local executive officials; and the claim will be perfectly just. The demand for a share in local elections is, in fact, the most reasonable form in which the cause of woman suffrage is presented; not only because municipal officers have little opportunity to indulge in legislative vagaries, but also because women often take a lively and intelligent interest in municipal affairs, though they may care nothing for state and national questions.
About the schools, police, and streets they are as much concerned as any one; the burden of municipal taxes is directly felt upon the family income, and if the wife is secretary of the treasury in the household, as Socrates tells us she will be if her husband is a Christian gentleman, she can appreciate good financial administration.
Then, too, if woman be given the ballot in local elections only, she can act freely on her best judgment, unbiased by attachment to either national party. Doubling the number of voters in town and city elections by the addition of such a body of independents would be, perhaps, the greatest of the possible benefits to ensue to society from woman suffrage.
It must be observed, however, that the realization of this benefit depends on their exclusion from any further share in politics. More important still, this possible good depends on the readiness of women to avail themselves of their right, or rather to perform their duty; for voting is a duty to be conscientiously and regularly performed, not merely a privilege to be exercised at pleasure.
This principle ought to be insisted on, but is persistently ignored. The welfare of the State depends on the faithful public spirit of its citizens. It is dangerous in itself to make any extension of the suffrage which will result in diminishing the proportion of those who have the right, and fail to use it.
As to the question whether women would vote as generally as men, it is not fair to form sweeping conclusions from the few facts yet available. Besides, though they do not care to vote at first, they may soon grow to an appreciation of their privilege.
The experience of Massachusetts, where women have school suffrage, is interesting, and, it must be confessed, rather discouraging. The opportunity to vote was neglected in its novelty by all save a very few women, and as time went on was neglected more and more.
Some will say that the women are a reserve guard, who come forward to save the State in time of peril, but that is a fanciful picture. It is quite true that in the election referred to many of them voted considerately, with a strong sense of duty, and often, too, under protest; but the fact remains that, the graver the issue, the more important is it that decision be made by those who take sufficient interest in the public welfare to perform their duties as citizens with regularity.
Neither do I wish to contradict that pious interpretation of Genesis, which avers that the Creator made woman for the express reason that he was dissatisfied with his work in man.
That the assistance of women in this field might help matters there are some reasons for hoping, but they are not to be found in the experience of Boston. The attitude of the majority of women themselves is, however, the vital consideration, and that most ignored even by the more thoughtful supporters of the suffrage movement. The participation of women in politics would not result in a moral revolution; it would be less likely to elevate politics than to prove a misapplication of the emotional qualities of woman, where there is need rather for the rational quality of man; and it would tend to encourage misconceptions, already too prevalent, as to those forces that are most potential in moulding the character of individuals and of nations.
Those women who imagine that their highest sphere of usefulness is in the school-room and at the polls need to learn that, in promoting the progress of the human race, education cannot take the place of heredity, nor the ballot do the work of the home.
It is safe to say that when a majority of the mothers in our land wish for the ballot they will obtain it.
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