Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
A unique feature of the convention which lightened its serious tone
was Dr. Shaw's "question box," into which any one might drop a
question and at intervals she would take them out and answer them on
the spur of the moment to the delight of her audience. "If women
voted," was one of them, "would they not have to sit on juries?" "Many
women would be glad of a chance to sit on anything," she answered with
a smile. "There are women who stand up and wash six days in the week
at 75 cents a day who would like to take a vacation and sit on a jury
at $1.50. Some women would like to sit on a jury at the trial of the
sharks that live by corrupting boys and girls. It would be easier for
a woman to sit on a jury and send to the penitentiary the men who are
trying to ruin her boy than to be always watching the boy." Another
question was: "Have not men a better right to the suffrage because
they have to support the family?" She answered: "It is fallacy to say
that the men support the women. The men by their industry provide the
raw material and the women by their industry turn it into clothing and
nourishment. When my father sent home a barrel of flour my mother did
not lead us eight youngsters up to that barrel of raw flour at
mealtime and say, 'Children, here is your dinner.' When he bought a
bolt of cloth she did not take that bolt of cloth and wind it around
us and say, 'Children, here are the clothes your father has sent you.'
The woman has always done her full share of supporting the family. In
the South under the old regime she bore more than an equal part of the
care, for the planter could hire an overseer for the plantation work
but the wife could not hire one for the work of the house."
Notwithstanding the utmost care and tact on the part of those who had
the convention in charge the "color question" kept cropping out.
Finally Dr. Shaw said: "Here is a query that has been dropped in the
box again and again and now I am asked if I am afraid to answer it:
'Will not woman suffrage make the black woman the political equal of
the white woman and does not political equality mean social equality?'
If it does then the men by keeping both white and black women
disfranchised have already established social equality!" The question
was not asked again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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