Did we beg for scolding bridles and ducking stools to come?
And clamor for the beating stick no thicker than your thumb?
Did we seek to be forbidden from all the trades that pay?
Did we claim the lower wages for a man’s full work to-day?
Have we petitioned for the laws wherein our shame is shown:
That not a woman’s child—nor her own body—is her own?
What women want has never been a strongly acting cause
When woman has been wronged by man in churches, customs, laws;
Why should he find this preference so largely in his way
When he himself admits the right of what we ask to-day?