Notes on Woman Suffrage

Critique of Woman Suffrage

• Universal suffrage, including woman suffrage, is a "modern fetish" blindly worshipped, demanding heavy sacrifices (freedom, life) without delivering promised benefits.

• Women are primary "fetich worshipers," upholding institutions like religion, war, and the home, despite suffering from them.

• Religion: Has condemned woman to an inferior life; yet, it has no greater supporter than woman.

• War: Robs woman of loved ones but she fosters conquest and praises victors.

• Home: A "terrible fetish" and "modern prison," yet woman clings to it.

• Suffrage, by promising to make women better Christians and homekeepers, merely strengthens the very institutions that oppress them.

• The demand for equal suffrage is misdirected; it views an "imposition" as a right.

• Male universal suffrage has failed, resulting in restrictive labor laws and corruption by politicians.

• The idea that women will "purify politics" is flawed; politics is inherently corrupt and women are unlikely to improve it, possibly making it worse.

• Dr. Helen L. Sumner, a suffragist, observed that equal suffrage in Colorado revealed the "essential rottenness and degrading character of the existing system."

Perceived Failure of Suffrage in Practice

• Australia and New Zealand: Despite women's suffrage, labor conditions are not superior, and stringent laws have