ABSTRACT

This chapter provides a categorical list of the principal arguments urged against the removal of electoral disabilities of women. The argument, that women's suffrage would only double the voting power of some men, can best be answered by making way for the next argument that women are so obstinate, that if they had votes, endless family discord would ensue. The mere possession of a vote does not confirm or intensify any opinion. Notwithstanding the obvious reply that a considerable number of women do want votes, and are continually petitioning Parliament to remove their electoral disabilities. Most people are either enthusiastically in favour of the extension of the suffrage to women, or are violently opposed to it. If the exclusion of women from political power be right and just, women as well as men are interested in maintaining it; if it be unjust and antagonistic to the principles of freedom, then men as well as women are interested in destroying it.