The Case for Suffrage (Continued)
During the latter half of the nineteenth century, opportunities for women grew. They had more higher-education opportunities, and became key members of reform efforts to improve social welfare. During World War I, women also played a vital role in preserving economic activity in the United States after much of the male population left for war. They made their case for suffrage but softened their case for equality.
The National Woman Suffrage Association organized marches and protests. The organization also published books and pamphlets supporting the cause of national suffrage. One of the publications printed in 1917, The Blue Book, was a compilation of text supporting the movement written by leaders of the movement. It included Objections Answered, a pamphlet written by Alice Stone Blackwell in which she answers and rebuts many arguments posed by the anti-suffrage movement.
Instead of arguing the equality of men and women, Blackwell argued that the woman’s role complements the man’s role in politics. In rebuttal to the argument that suffrage is not a natural right, Blackwell responded:
It is hard to define just what a "natural right" is. Dr. James Freeman Clarke said: "If all women were forbidden to use the sidewalk, and they complained of the injustice, it would be no answer to tell them that it was not a natural or inherent right, but one given by society, and which society might therefore control as it saw fit. A great many rights are given by society, of which, however, it would be manifestly unjust to deprive either sex (The Blue Book: Woman Suffrage: History Arguments and Results, 205).During the presidential administration of Woodrow Wilson in 1920, women were given the right to vote under the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Suffragists