International Labour Party Quotes
Votes for Ladies
International Labour Party, Reference to the woman suffrage movement
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
She was the first presidential candidate's wife to admit such a radical position.
None of the other parties had any women candidates. The Communists got a lot of votes from women whose only way they could support the participation of women in Italian politics, was to vote for a Communist candidate. And people who were opposed to non-traditional roles for women then conflated the feminists and the Communists just as had been done in America, England and many other countries and accused all feminists of being communists.
The editorial was in support of women’s suffrage—the right to vote which at the time women did not have in Britain. Women were very active in protests and demonstrations. Tactics sometimes involved civil disobedience and chaining themselves to public buildings. It was the civil disobedience and disruptions that the newspaper referred to as the “follies and excesses.” In retrospect today, it is amazing how threatened the society felt and how they reacted to the “threat” of females voting. It does however give us a perspective on those contemporary societies which restrict women’s voting rights.
Referring to new laws that would be necessary after a proposed Declaration of Independence:
The speaker predicted the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, but was off by three years.
The Organization's Periodical. The statement was repeated several times in variation between 1890 and 1920. This organization was the national leader of similar organizations in over 20 States. Many notables were involved including Louis D. Brandeis, Francis Parkman and John Lowell.
Hunt gave as an example Mary Smith of Stanmore. This quotation is very interesting in the history of women’s suffrage. Hunt was a strong advocate for Universal Suffrage (See {616653}.) At the time, even men had to be a taxpayer and own a sufficient amount of property to vote. Less than 20% of the population of Britain were allowed to vote. The argument at the time was that the husband would represent the family’s interest at the ballot box and there was no need for women to vote. But by facing parliament with the logical inconsistency of its position, he was able to make his point, although there were very few women like Mary Smith who were single and had the economic resources to qualify. Most widows remarried so even if they had economic resources, there was a man who could assume the then perceived role of head of the household.
