Gender_war_Suffrage.md 2.1 KB
Men and women were doing physical labour around the farm or homestead.
Lot sof farm labour that was generally lighter than what men were doing Industria revolution came and things became mechanized. Women began thinking "well if we're making money, where's that going to place us?"
Feminism came out of class warfare and workers rights movements.
French REvolution, American Revolution, talking about various forms of democracy, voting and suffrage. At this time, most men did not vote.
1800s - only 4 or 5% of men were enfranchised with the vote in 1800. All men voting was not a thing.
Most men in Europe and the United States were not voting until around the same time as women
Women didn't even necessarily want to vote - they were politically conservative in many cases and weren't interested in changing this aspect of voting. Even progressives didn't necessarily want women to vote because they didn't think they'd vote for progressive ideas.
More membership in anti-suffrage groups than pro-suffrage groups. Anti-suffragists wrote about this "if we just become another political entity, we'll lose our moral high ground"
Things women are classically concerned with: education, safety.
Anti-suffragists thought the vote would cause issues in families and marriages and asked "If women become fully enfranchised and we push women out into politics, who will be raising children at home? Will we have to pay people to raise children?"
In her history of women's suffrage, Susan B Anthony says "if we left women suffrage up to women, it would have never happened" because women's lives were too good. They have a little mechanization around the home and it's making things easier for housewives. Women have some rights that men didn't have at this time, which they didn't want to lose, for example: If a wealthy woman came into a marriage in NY and married a poor man, the man was still legally responsible to take care of the wife. She had the right to his money, but he didn't have the right to hers. They also didn't want to be drafted or to do jury duty, or to be held legally responsible for debts instead of the men.