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. . . .
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.
—Nellie McClung
A few months after Maclean's magazine published Stephen Leacock's article, "The Woman Question," they published
Nellie McClung's answer to it, "Speaking of Women."
In her essay, McClung carefully refutes Leacock's portrayal of the
feminist as "the Awful Woman with the Spectacles" who
agitates women who are content with their lot in life, and
works them up into an unruly mob, screaming for freedom, and
the vote. Instead, she takes a calm, reasoned approach to
the issue of women's rights and the soon-to-be-achieved
women's vote.
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