Speaking of Women:
Anti-Suffrage Reasoning
This deep-rooted fear, that any change may bring personal
inconvenience, lies at the root of much of the opposition to all
reform.
Men held to slavery for long years, condoning and justifying it,
because they were afraid that without slave labor life would not be
comfortable. Certain men have opposed the advancement of women for the
same reason; their hearts have been beset with the old black fear
that, if women were allowed equal rights with men, some day some man
would go home and find the dinner not ready, and the potatoes not even
peeled!
But not many give expression to this fear, as a reason for their
opposition. They say they oppose the enfranchisement of women because
they are too frail, weak and sweet to mingle in the hurly-burly of
life; that women have far more influence now than if they could vote,
and besides, God never intended them to vote, and it would break up
the home, and make life a howling wilderness; the world would be full
of neglected children (or none at all) and the homely joys of the
fireside would vanish from the earth.
I remember once hearing an eloquent speaker cry out in alarm, "If
women ever get the vote, who will teach us to say our prayers?"
Surely his experience of the franchised class had been an unfortunate
one when he could not believe that anyone could both vote and pray!
That women are physically inferior to men is a strange reason for
placing them under a further handicap, and we are surprised to find it
advanced in all seriousness as an argument against woman suffrage. The
exercising of the ballot does not require physical strength or
endurance. Surely the opponents of woman suffrage do not mean to
advocate that a strong fist should rule; just now we are a bit
sensitive about this, and such doctrine is not popular. Might is not
right; with our heart's blood we declare it is not!
No man has the right to citizenship on his weight, height, or lifting
power; he exercises this right because he is a human being, with hands
to work, brain to think, and a life to live.
It is to save women from toil and fatigue and all unpleasantness that
the chivalrous ones would deny her the right of exercising the
privileges of citizenship; though just how this could be brought about
is not stated. Women are already in the battle of life; thirty per
cent of the adult women of Canada and the United States are wage
earners, and the percentage grows every day. How does the lack of the
ballot help them? Is it any comfort to the woman who feels the sting
of social injustice to reflect that she, at least, had no part in
making such a law? Or do the poor women who go through the deserted
streets in the grey dawn to their homes, alone and unprotected after
their hard night's work at the office-cleaning, ever proudly reflect
that at least they have never had to drag their skirts in the mire of
the polls, or be stared at by rude men as they approach the ballot
box?
The physical disability of women is an additional reason for their
having the franchise. The ballot is such a simple, easy way of
expressing a preference or wish so "genteel," ladylike and dignifies.
Maclean’s May 1916. [<<back]
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