Suffragettes Quotes
She was overly optimistic. She would be dead for 30 years before women got the vote and some would argue that full equality has not been reached yet.
Many people, mostly men, tended to regard and label the militant suffragettes as extremists and allowed as how women who advocated their voting rights but in an acceptable way might be wrong but they were at least ladies. The same kind of attempted split occurred in the latter half of the 20th century over the Woman’s movement. The Feminists were not “ladies” and were not to be emulated by normal women even if they had sympathy for he views. Groups without power have always been acceptable to society as long as their cries for a share of power were ineffectual and did not disrupt the existing order. But when they begin to use more successful means and are heard and attended to, then they are labeled as extremists not to be emulated by “decent” people.
Woodrow Wilson had just finished speaking to the convention – see {638532}. This statement was thought be some to be insulting to the President who said he favored the right of women to vote, but did very little if anything to make that happen. Although Shaw was an ordained Methodist Minister, the Methodist Episcopal Church refused to allow her to preach because of her suffrage views.
The classification of women with criminals and lunatics referred to the fact that at this time Women could not vote in New Zealand or any other nation of the world. The following year, much as a result of her efforts, New Zealand became the first country in the world to allow women to vote.
Stanton had been their past President and was one of the most famous suffragettes of the time. Despite her warning, the religious wing of the women’s movement pushed the resolution through.
To support the war effort, the most militant suffragettes ceased anti Government militancy. The suffragette movement was split by WWI and the issue of pacifism. See {621266} for the anti-war factional view.
This quotation illustrates the horror which many society women felt when one of them became a suffragette. Note that the reaction was almost as if Emily had died. This social reaction by other women was emotionally one of the most difficult things with which the suffragette had to cope.
Billinghurst was physically handicapped without the use of her legs. She protested and marched in protest parades using a hand propelled tricycle which the police sometimes dumped her out of and left her immobile in alleys.
