The Woman and the Right to Vote

by Rafael Palma

Does woman ever inspire man with greater respect than when she is instructed, when a college education has brought her to his own level? Was woman more respected in the past, when she remained ignorant, than she is now? I am willing to concede that she may have been courted more assiduously, but that does not mean that she was more respected. Do you understand by respect and consideration those empty forms of etiquette which make a man bow down to the ground to a woman and regale her with a few hollow compliments, designed to tickle the vanity or turn the head of a credulous and frivolous being? Do you call respect the singular habit of certain men to always find the eyes of the woman to whom they are speaking divine, to compare her mouth to a rosebud, her teeth to a string of beautiful pearls, and her form to the slender willow, and other stupidities of that kind? If that is the sort of respect and consideration that woman will lose if she goes into politics, she ought to be very glad to get rid of it, because all these empty phrases of gallantry are like the crowing of the rooster who wishes to dazzle a silly hen on which he has designs.

And, tell me, how is it possible for weakness and ignorance to inspire respect? As a matter of fact, when a little cooking, embroidering, and music, and the knowledge of the catechism were deemed sufficient to prepare a girl for married life, which was then the only career open to woman, she was the recipient of great consideration and courtesy from man. These, however, were not inspired by real respect, but rather by a sentiment of chivalry, because man thought woman so weak and ignorant that he deemed it his duty to show her that protection, consideration, and courtesy which are due to weakness and ignorance. Is this the opinion that our women want us to have of them? Respect is a sentiment engendered by the idea of equality, and unless woman is placed on the same level with man in the field of politics, we shall continue to hear ignominious phrases such as “But, woman, what do you know about these things! You go and mind your own business!”

Our women need not worry that if they are allowed to vote, they will necessarily forfeit the consideration and courtesy accorded to them at present, when they do not come into direct collision with man on the field of politics, and that the men will then consider themselves free to attack them as a rival whom they must overcome and destroy for their own preservation. In the first place it is a mistake to conclude that the participation of woman in public life will result in rivalry between the sexes. The attraction and sympathy between man and woman springs precisely from the difference in sex. If there were only men or only women, there might be such a thing as our mutually destroying each other, because there would be no purpose in life and the human race would not reproduce itself. It is in the interest of one sex not to destroy the other. On the other hand, politics is not always a personal struggle. In its proper and loftiest sense it is a struggle of ideas and principles, of theories and methods. Therefore, if a man is pitted against a woman in the arena of politics, they are certainly not compelled to engage in fisticuffs and kill each other, but each will present his own views on the points at issue, with more or less sound arguments in support of them. I do not believe any man has the right to insult a woman because she is his opponent, seeing that he has no such a right where a man is concerned. And if in the heat of political strife such an insult should be passed, has not woman the right to reply or to pay the offender back in his own coin? This is a case where woman will be given an opportunity to learn to be independent in judgment and action, seeing that certain persons do not want woman to vote unless she possesses independence of thought and action. I do not want, either, to give voice to the suspicion that many men are against female suffrage because they fear they might be worsted in a public debate, and what would then become of the prestige of the strong sex?

In the second place, if woman wants man to adore and idolize her, she can get him to do it whether she votes or not. Man does not adore woman because she has less rights than he has; but he worships her because woman is woman, the archetype of grace and beauty of creation, and man will forever burn incense at the shrine of that divinity. Remember that it has always been said that christianity elevated the condition of woman and gave her greater rights, and yet it is the Christian countries where woman is accorded the greatest consideration and respect.

Suffrage will not detract from the beauty of the long tresses of woman, nor will it make her cheeks and lips less rosy and the curves of her body less graceful. On the contrary, it will lend her an additional grace, that of being able to write a ballot in her diminutive handwriting, and man will always feel for her that love, tenderness, and adoration which grace and beauty will always inspire all the world over. Hercules will always bow to Venus because she is Venus, though Venus be a suffragist.

A political education will provide woman with new means for gaining the respect and admiration of man. Woman will realize that her duty does not merely consist in giving sons and daughters to the fatherland, but in educating and training them in such a manner that from their childhood on they will take interest in everything tending to improve social conditions, and in inspiring them with the desire to devote their efforts to a certain cause or party, for the best of their people. Public opinion will become much broader and stronger when it shall reflect the sentiments of our women, who are at present a passive element where the duties of citizenship are concerned; and when in her dark hours the nation shall need assistance, she will receive it not only from her citizens, but also from her citizenesses, who will not be ignorant and inexperienced in the tasks and duties confronting the people, but will be accustomed to the discipline of organization and to the calls of the public service.

There is no doubt, of course, that it is greatly to the advantage of man to maintain woman in ignorance, not only with regard to politics, but also where other matters are concerned. For one thing, it renders it easier for man to satisfy his whims and make of woman a toy which he can use or drop according to his fancy. She is obedient, submissive, and resigned; she never discusses or argues; she obeys and serves in silence, like a beautiful piece of furniture, differing from the rest only in that she is animate; she is a delightful doll because she can speak and has a little sense. I know that this is the ideal of many men, for the only reason that it suits their convenience.

But that is not woman as she should be; the woman that our century has redeemed from ignorance and slavery; the woman whom God has endowed with an intellect, a will and a heart, hers to cultivate and perfect in order that she may be not the servant of man, but his companion, not the subject of the king, but the queen enthroned by his side, to be his faithful and constant ally from the cradle to the grave, in prosperity and adversity, not only in the intimacy of the home, but also in the wide arena of public life. Man and woman were created to mate and to understand and love each other, to work, suffer, and struggle side by side for all that is good and beautiful in life, to perpetuate the sovereignty of human couple on earth, and to make it a place of happiness, free from tyranny and suffering and fit to be inhabited by peaceful and intelligent beings and not by vultures and wild beasts.

This is the mission of woman and man on earth as I understand and conceive it. Until man and woman are placed on exactly the same footing, until they stand on the same plane, so that there can be an intimate communion of thoughts, ideas, and interests, life will always be ominous and unhappy for one or for the other, and humanity will never overcome the evils with which it is now struggling. God made woman as perfect as man, and it is unjust to deprive her of any of the benefits and advantages which man derives from science, arts, and politics. Politics is a noble occupation, as it is the art or science of making nations happy, and it is but just that woman should contribute her share to the attainment of that happiness.

Is there any doubt that woman has faculties, sentiments, views, and methods of doing things of her own, different from those of man? How often has man, when he did not dare to do a thing, left it to woman to do! She has a personality of her own and should, like man, be given an opportunity to develop it; she should be given a voice where her own interests are concerned, and should on her own account face the risks incidental to life, venturing, experimenting, and discovering things for herself instead of having man establish an invariable rule of conduct for her and imposing upon her the methods which she must follow.