End the Suffrage of Women!
On this day in history...
Male Colorado voters make the morally correct but tactically foolish decision to grant the vote to the women of that state. Twenty-three years later and also on this day, Jeanette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman elected to the US Congress.
Interestingly, many of the colonies had at least some provision for women voting. New Jersey was the last of these to remove that privilege in 1807. Some states allowed women to vote in school board elections throughout the nineteenth century, and several of the territories preceded Colorado in granting women's suffrage.
I am reminded of a Man Show skit where Adam and the other dude go to a county fair and set up a booth for an "End the Suffrage of Women" movement. Playing on the similarity of the words 'suffrage' and 'suffering.' they convinced several well-meaning but rather dim women to sign. They even got one woman to volunteer to help get signatures. In her defense, she spoke very poor english. But the best part was the reaction of the very few people who actually knew what suffrage is. One elderly gentleman was on the verge of violence. Another, a young protester hippie type woman, patiently tried to explain to the non-english speaker that what she was doing was not a good thing, and that the nice young men were in fact making fun of her.
on
| § 1
§ One Comment
[ You're too late, comments are closed ]
'y know, I wrote a paper on
'y know, I wrote a paper on the formation of the idea of "American citizenship" in the post-revolution era and why that designation explicitly excluded women. Only interesting to me, probably. And a boring paper. But good information, at least.
As Senator William H. Seward said to Susan B. Anthony circa 1850 on the subject of women's suffrage, "You have the argument, but custom and prejudice are against you, and they are stronger than truth and logic."