William McKinley Quotes
I am glad that we are demonstrating in the United States to-day that the boy should have no more advantage than the girl.
Mount Holyoke College was one of the finest women’s colleges. This line drew applause, although as we look back on it, the statement seems hypocritical. Women at the time could not vote and in some states even own property. They could not serve in the military and were barred from most executive and technical jobs, government as well as private. President McKinley was not a public advocate for women’s rights or equality. He was however, at least in favor of higher education for women—something which many politicians opposed at the time.
William McKinley, 1843-1901, 25th President of the United States (Republican, OH), Speech, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, June 20, 1899
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This is one of the most positive statements about women and women’s rights to emanate from a leader of a Muslim Middle Eastern nation.
Wadsworth had opposed all earlier legislation assisting women, but devised this strategy which split the pro-woman’s equality movement by urging a policy of partial equal rights.
This is a remarkably modern statement for the time.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910
William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. McKinley was president during the Spanish–American War of 1898, raised protective tariffs to boost American industry, and rejected the expansionary monetary policy of free silver, keeping the nation on the gold standard.