This article was written by a man who was a College senior at the time. He has since graduated. When he transfered from college, I placed this page here so that all can continue to read it.
The underlying purposes of this page are to reexamine the adoption of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and discuss its effects on American society. I realize that this issue is one that foments controversy, but it is one that needs serious evaluation. Americans seem to take it for granted that women have suffrage, but women did not receive the franchise until just 78 years ago.
In ancient Rome and Greece, women were not allowed to vote. Women, it was felt in these democratic societies, were not to engage in civil life. In Sparta and Athens, women were not even allowed to be citizens. In more modern times, polities (until recently) exhibited similar characteristics. At the turn of this century things began to change. Women received the franchise in Great Britain in 1928. France did not allow women to vote until 1944, and Switzerland did not grant suffrage to women until 1972. America went through a similar transformation, and extended suffrage to women in 1920. This move was a clear violation of the founding principles of the American Republic. The second president of the United States, John Adams, once wrote to his wife Abigail that he knew better than to dismantle the "Masculine" political system. America's third president, Thomas Jefferson, also realized the danger of feminizing politics. No women were at the Constitutional Convention, which is why the Constitution has been so successfull. At the time the Constitution was adopted, not one state had female suffrage. The Supreme Court in 1875 said that by prohibiting women's suffrage, a state did not deprive them of the "equal protection of the laws" (see Minor v. Happersett, 21 Wall. 162 (1875)). Currently, any lay observer of American politics knows that most women, as has been said in our nation's history a million times by now, inherently think with their emotions. Anyone who thinks with his emotions should not be in politics, man or woman. Emotional thinking and governing a society do not mix, as the Enlightenment taught all of mankind. James Madison, our fourth president, clearly stated that an individual should think with his mind and reason, not his emotion and passion. Furthermore, John Locke believed that women had no political rights whatsoever. Obviously, we have lost track of our American roots and if this nation is to survive as a great world power, our government must be invigorated with great men who think with their reason.