Women's Suffrage: A Short History of a Great MovementFawcett, Millicent Garrett, Dame
Philosophy
Women's Suffrage: A Short History of a Great Movement
Fawcett, Millicent Garrett, Dame
Women -- Suffrage -- Great Britain
Just as it is now in England with us, differences arose among New
Zealand suffragists as to how much suffrage women ought to have, or at
any rate for how much would it be wise to ask, and the parties were
called the "half loafers" and the "whole loafers." The "no bread"
party watched these differences just as they do in England, and tried
unsuccessfully to profit by them. In the debate on Sir John Hall's
Women's Suffrage resolution in 1890, Mr. W. P. Reeves, so long known in
England as the Agent-General for New Zealand, and later as the Director
of the London School of Economics, and also as an excellent friend
of women's suffrage, announced himself to be a "half loafer"; indeed
he advocated the restriction of the franchise to such women, over
twenty-one years of age, who had passed the matriculation examination
of the university. There is an Arabic proverb to the effect that the
world is divided into three classes--"the immovable, the movable, and
those who actually move." It is unwise to despair of the conversion
of any anti-suffragist unless he has proved himself to belong to the
"immovables." In 1890 Mr. Reeves, now so good a suffragist, had only
advanced to the point of advocating the enfranchisement of university
women. His proposal for a high educational suffrage test for women did
not meet with support. It was rejected by more robust suffragists as
"not even half a loaf, only a ginger nut." The anti-suffragists used
the same arguments which they use with us. They professed themselves
to be intimately acquainted with the views of the Almighty on the
question of women voting. "It was contrary to the ordinance of God";
women politicians were represented as driving a man from his home
because it would be infested "with noisy and declamatory women." After
the Bill had passed both Houses a solemn petition was presented by
anti-suffragists, who were members of the Legislative Council, asking
the Governor to withhold his assent on the ground that "it would
seriously affect the rights of property and embarrass the finances of
the colony, thereby injuriously affecting the public creditor." Others
protested that it was self-evident, that women's suffrage must lead
to domestic discord and the neglect of home life. Of course all the
anti-suffragists were certain that women did not want the vote, and
would not use it even if it were granted to them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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