I am decidedly opposed to male suffrage
Title
I am decidedly opposed to male suffrage
Description
I am decidedly opposed to male suffrage and the following are some of my reasons.
First: A man, for possibly an hour each year in order to cast his ballot, would be compelled to neglect his family and his business.
Secondly: Politics corrupt men; therefore, they should not be allowed to vote.
Thirdly: They have had the elective franchise a long time, and still intemperance and licentiousness prevail, therefore, they should be disfranchised.
Fourthly: it creates family discord, for a wife once refused to sew on her husband’s shirt buttons, because he voted the Republican ticket, while she was a Democrat.
Fifthly: it engenders neighborhood quarrels, for a man once refused to vote for another man’s brother, and it produced a coolness between the two families.
Sixthly: Very few men in some districts attend school meetings to vote for school officers, which proves that men do not want to vote, therefore, the whole sex should be disfranchised. -- Emily P. Collins, 1884
Who was Emily? Read on...
Emily Collins began organizing for voting rights as soon as she heard about the Seneca Falls convention. By the end of 1848 her western New York town had sent a petition signed by 62 men and women, to the legislature. That was a lot of names for a tiny town!
They were laughed at, but she was not dissuaded. She moved to Rochester, and later to New Orleans and then Connecticut, and she organized women there too. She was living in Hartford when she wrote this 👆piece, which ran in a San Francisco feminist newspaper.
Collins concluded her list by noting drolly that it was a critique of women voters in Wyoming, and it convinced a Massachusetts legislator to oppose suffrage. In the 1880s Mass women were pushing to expand school suffrage to all municipal elections. It didn't happen. #suffrage100
First: A man, for possibly an hour each year in order to cast his ballot, would be compelled to neglect his family and his business.
Secondly: Politics corrupt men; therefore, they should not be allowed to vote.
Thirdly: They have had the elective franchise a long time, and still intemperance and licentiousness prevail, therefore, they should be disfranchised.
Fourthly: it creates family discord, for a wife once refused to sew on her husband’s shirt buttons, because he voted the Republican ticket, while she was a Democrat.
Fifthly: it engenders neighborhood quarrels, for a man once refused to vote for another man’s brother, and it produced a coolness between the two families.
Sixthly: Very few men in some districts attend school meetings to vote for school officers, which proves that men do not want to vote, therefore, the whole sex should be disfranchised. -- Emily P. Collins, 1884
Who was Emily? Read on...
Emily Collins began organizing for voting rights as soon as she heard about the Seneca Falls convention. By the end of 1848 her western New York town had sent a petition signed by 62 men and women, to the legislature. That was a lot of names for a tiny town!
They were laughed at, but she was not dissuaded. She moved to Rochester, and later to New Orleans and then Connecticut, and she organized women there too. She was living in Hartford when she wrote this 👆piece, which ran in a San Francisco feminist newspaper.
Collins concluded her list by noting drolly that it was a critique of women voters in Wyoming, and it convinced a Massachusetts legislator to oppose suffrage. In the 1880s Mass women were pushing to expand school suffrage to all municipal elections. It didn't happen. #suffrage100
Creator
Daily Suffragist
Source
Date
October 27, 2020
Files
Collection
Citation
Daily Suffragist, “I am decidedly opposed to male suffrage,” Daily Suffragist, accessed April 23, 2024, https://dailysuffragist.omeka.net/items/show/532.