all mankind."













Obviously some very outdated views on gender. But, note the bolded text. This is from 1911, mind you, in a piece arguing against suffrage. It seems that the dominant thinking at the time was that suffrage would actually hurt women, as it would lead to a loss of chivalric benefits given to women. The main motivation for opposing suffrage, for both male and female anti suffragettes, was a believe in strictly defined gender roles and spheres, not misogyny or oppression.





Here's another list of reasons anti suffragettes opposed suffrage from around the same time:









"1.

Again. Look at the bolded. It was recognized in pre suffrage America that women, in fact, had many privileges afforded to them under the law made by men. The anti suffragettes of both genders were in fact so committed to female legal privileges, that they were concerned that suffrage would erode chivalry and would thus chip away at these privileges.

On top of this, we also see a string of "separate but also important" argument that women dominate the domestic front while men dominate everywhere else. This was supported by the view that this was the order of nature. Yes, these views are vastly outdated. While we do know biology plays a role in gender behavioral differences, we also know that the difference is not so profound as to justify such a strict division of labor.





But, I want to stress that these arguments were not motivated by misogyny or oppression. In fact, they were motivated by traditionalism. A traditionalism that saw women as innocent beings, who would only be hurt by being brought into a corrupt political sphere. These views, of course, have their basis in chivalry. A chivalric code that demanded men put the interest of women above their owns. This included the institution of government.





I'm obviously glad women have the vote now. But, the argument that disenfranchisement of women was motivated by hatred of women is absurd. It was, in fact, driven in large part by a love of women, and a sense that men had a duty to do the dirty political work for women.



