Why did some American women before and during 1920 didn’t support women’s right to vote?

Their husbands and fathers brainwashed them into thinking they weren’t good enough or smart enough to vote.

Many of the female nay-sayers probably did, but wouldn’t dare say so for fear of reprisals.

They did support it; however, they couldn’t say it out loud or hubby would beat the shit out of them for thinking without permission…It was their form of self preservation!!! Then, IF it didn’t pass they were no worse off; however, IF it did pass, they could vote the exact opposite of their spouse!!!

All of the issues above, but the key issue that is overlooked, and the one overriding ALL the others is “that’s the way it’s ALWAYS been done. STOP rocking the boat.” Those advocating such changes were relegated to the category of dangerous radicals fomenting the destruction of the cement ordering the society.

Tradition and the church.

There were women who firmly believed women should not be butch. Many suffragettes also smoked, drank, potty mouthed, and even wore britches! Such activities adversely affected the reproductive parts, made women less desirable for marriage, and all that time and energy should be spent perfecting a peach cobbler. It was how many women felt, and nobody was pulling wool over their eyes, maybe a few.
I have known plenty of women who didn’t get a drivers license until their husband died or could no longer drive.
My mom did a lot of playing helpless female so she wouldn’t have to do stuff.

Everyone does not feel the same about gender neutrality. Some women are happy letting a man do all the muscle stuff and most of the decisions.

Everything above. Brainwashed, couldn’t or wouldn’t say they were in favor of it in public, ignorant, complacent, afraid of change, Didn’t see it as feminine. If the vote often went the way you wanted, and your life was overall good, why worry about such things? Especially, if your church, husband, or community looks negatively on many of the women leading the charge. In fact, maybe your husband will be more of a jerk if women get the vote if you see him getting enraged about it. Who needs that in the household? Or, if you trust your husband to vote as you would, or have vowed to be submissive to him, why would your vote matter?

In Muslim countries some women will argue being completely covered is good and they don’t agree with these horrible progressive women who want to lift the veil. How can anyone like having to be covered like that? Yet some will say they do, and don’t mind the government having laws about it.

“Complacent” “tradition” “church”. Bullshit. Without the vote, how could they object/protest? Most of the women who didn’t fight for the vote couldn’t. I imagine that the (very few, I am guessing) women who actually didn’t want the vote were indeed those things mentioned above, and wealthy because of marriage. Comfort was more important than a voice.

But the vast majority of women 100 years ago had to take into account physical safety, care for their children, food, roof, stuff like that.

Before any adult group in a society has a real way to make their needs/wants known, it is dangerous to make demands to the power bloc. The people who protest and make the kind of noise needed to effect positive social change are unimaginably courageous.

Not all women have the confidence to assert themselves. Even today many women are there strictly to please their husbands. If they don’t want them to do something they don’t do it.
My dad’s wife was that way. She was like some sort of maid. It blew my mind, but she liked it. It fulfilled her.

I just got done reading “Elvis and Me,” by Priscila Presley. He snagged her when she was 14 and he groomed her to become his perfect woman.
100 years ago it was not an unusual for a grown man to take 13, 14 year old girls for wives and to groom them,continuing the education that her father and probably mother taught them. It takes a pretty special, strong, brave women to break with societal traditions and be willing to incur the wrath of their husbands, family and the rest of society by asserting herself.

Another good example, although she’s fictional, is Rose from the movie Titanic. I have no reason to think her character was off the mark. Women needed men in those days in a way that we don’t need them now. They were really trapped. It’s hard for me to imagine.

Nobody needs to be enraged over women who want to be women, want to follow old traditions. We are not all the same, which, is the reason for democracy to begin with.
A dog can be a dog, and a horse a horse, and cat a cat.
If women want to fight for certain rights, and various things they view as giving them dignity, fine, do that, but don’t tell my grandma she can’t be a cart horse if that is what makes her fulfilled.

Here’s another thing to contemplate, women who say they are happy being wife, mother, and school party planner, I know of many and they die fulfilled.
I spent a life chasing after the things women say we are supposed to fight for, and right now I just wish I had an old man who has been by my side for thirty years and had babies with me, to hold my hand, watch TV with me, and pat my cheek gently when I feel frustrated.

Outrage, have it if you want, but it really is true many women think it is nuts.
Small towns don’t function like cities, they have to be different. Well, if no women could be satisfied being nesters, we would face extinction. It is okay, not to follow the same drummer. Weird, fighting so hard to be accepted, and be so unwilling to accept.

There is room for more than one kind of woman in this world.

GA @Patty_Melt. I enjoyed being a stay at home mother for the years that I was. I guess in retrospect it wasn’t the best move financially…...but how could I know that eventually I’d be all on my own with the kids to raise alone?

@Patty_Melt “Everyone does not feel the same about gender neutrality. Some women are happy letting a man do all the muscle stuff and most of the decisions.”

I’m sooooo glad I’m not the only one who sees this. The number of women in my community who’s only goal in life is to be a stay at home mom is incredibly high. The amount of pressure that puts on their men (who gripe to me) is unbelievable. Zero outside interests apart from family, it makes me crazy just thinking about it.

And tbh, my grandmother was a lot like that.

So…are you saying those moms who want to be a stay at home Mom are doing the wrong thing @KNOWITALL? If so, I think you missed @Patty_Melt‘s whole point.

My Mom was born in 1926 & women were already allowed to vote. Her dad believed that a woman’s place was taking care of the home & the man’s was taking care of the farm. He didn’t nose into their area & they weren’t allowed into his!!! From the day that she was born until the day that she died, she had a man providing for her as long as she obeyed their rules. Her dad began taking care of he the day that she was born. She wasn’t allowed to help on the farm. He provided her with a comfortable home with plenty of food. She helped her mom with the canning & preserving of the food her dad grew. She was required to go to school & then come home to help around the house. She met my dad when she was 5 & they became best friends mostly because his family lived on the next farm over & he was the only human anywhere near her age. That plus they went to school together & he watched over her while at school which helped her to feel safe!!!

Over the years, they began to have dates. Gram & Gramps liked him & she had no oe else to trust. They got married when she was 17 & he was on his way to serve in WWII. The ONLY time that she worked outside the home was for a couple of years while he was overseas. She took a clerical job in an office so she could eat. The Army had moved them from Georgia to California & she was determined to be wherever her husband was.

Once WWII ended they returned to Georgia & my dad refused to allow his wife to work. She was back to staying at home & taking care of her husband & eventually her children. Dad even did all the grocery shopping so she has NO reason to leave the house. Her big day out was when the family went to church on Sundays or on the weekends dad took the family to visit with her family. One weekend a month we automatically went to spend the weekend at her parents home.

I have to give dad credit that whenever she said she needed something, he tried to get it for her. Still, IF he decided that she didn’t need it, he had the option to refuse to buy it for her. I can say that dad seldom denied her requests. In return, mom made sure that dad had everything he wanted & exactly the way he wanted it…it was a 100% give-give situation They completely took care of each other!!!

Mom was in charge of the house during the day while dad was at work. She had him a hot meal on the table when he walked in the door. Then he’d go back to work & she took care of the house & kids until dinnertime & by then she had another hot meal waiting for him when he walked in the door. Dad was in charge of the house at night & whatever dad said was the rule you lived by.

Dad provided for mom until the day she died. Right after moving back home, I made the mistake of saying that I was glad I was born after women were no longer slaves & we had the freedom to do as we pleased. She turned on me like a Pit Bull. She let me know in no uncertain terms that she had NEVER been a slave & she LOVED taking care of her husband & children. She LOVED cooking & cleaning & that was her job just like I had a job outside the home. She ended the conversation with “I NEVER want to hear you call me a slave ever again!!!” Believe me, tha was the LAST time I ever disrespected her like that although I realized that she had NO clue how subservient she was to my dad!!! It also gave me something to think about. I was watching 2 people who loved each other sooo much that there was NOTHING they wouldn’t do for each other!!! I grew to understand that she wasn’t really a slave as she didnn’t want her life to change & she was cotent with things just like they were!!!

Dad spent all his time trying to get me in line once I moved back home. It drove him crazy that I was a self confident & independent woman who could take care of herself. He was constantly telling me how I was going to hell because I refused to bow down to any man. Before he died, he made my brother promise him that he’d take care of me because I was a female & shouldn’t be taking care of myself.

Somewhere down the line the males started abusing their women & women had to learn to defend themselves. My mom never had to deal with being abused!!! Yes, she had ALL her decisions made for her; however, they were made out of love & she was comfortable with where her life was going. She wasn’t forced to do a lot of things that I would have felt I was being forced to do because she felt it was the safest thing for her to do. There were very few jobs for women until after WWII & once those jobs became available, women realized that there was another world out there where they could be in control of their own lives!!!

In thinking about mom’s life, she wasn’t wrong. She lived a long & happy life with very few worries because somebody else always did her worrying for her!!! It was the right life for her but I’m pretty darn sure that I wasn’t masde for her kind of life!!! As I frequently say…just because it is wrong for me that does NOT mean that it had to be wrong for her!!! I have to say that she was a very content woman!!!

Yes, while some can’t imagine the contentment in being a nester, some can’t imagine there being any suitable alternative.

In order to have a woman be president, there needs to be a woman proud to have raised her.
Some think that isn’t enough, but there is some who burst with pride when they hear someone say her husband is looking well, and boy those kids are smart! For many, there is no greater praise.

My grandma would plow behind a mule, and punch the jackass in the nose if it stopped, but she would not raise a cross word to grandpa. And when my dad took a fall, and drove a railroad spike through his leg, she never told anybody that when the doctor turned him over to look, grandpa saw the blood and fainted.

Women were the makers of humans, the food source for babies and the food makers for crews of hard working hungry men. Old TV shows are deceptive. Women don’t do housework in dress and gloves, or have pipe and cocktail ready when hubby comes home. It is hard, sweaty, bloody work, done exclusively. There is plenty for women who make a go of that life to be proud of. There is need in this world though for women of many skills and goals. I see no reason for some to choice shame others.

@LadyMarissa my Mom was born tobfarm folk too, in the 1930sm
They had 9 l kids. All but 2 were girls. Mom said that was disappointing because they were breeding farm hands.
No prob. They just worked the girls like boys.
I don’t think Mom has a clue about canning. She had to teach herself how to clean a house after she married Dad. Gramma was too busy giving birth and having babies to worry about silly things like house cleaning.

@Dutchess Its admirable to follow your dream, takes all types. I just cant imaginethat life tbh, more type A.

@LadyMarissa I’m not assuming anything about your dad, but all I can say is most men I know who don’t let their wives go anywhere without them, and who expect their wives to only be at home, are cheaters, which also means they are liars, and sometimes they are physically abusive too. That whole macho set up usually isn’t good for women. The women might be perfectly happy being stay at home wives and moms, I see nothing wrong with women having that role in a marriage, but when it’s under lock and key it’s suspect.

People’s attitudes evolve. For example, nobody ever wanted to be a slave, but the condemnation of slavery is fairly recent, a part of the Enlightenment.

As for voting rights, Annie Oakley is an interesting example. Her exhibition of marksmanship made her a major celebrity. Firing a rifle was certainly not a common female activity of the time.and, not surprisingly, Oakley was a firm supporter of women’s rights, but she did not support giving the vote to women. She thought that voting was unladylike. Go figure.

Well someone has to raise the kids @KNOWITALL. I am glad my husband and I were on the same page.

You needed a book?

It’s a phrase @Patty_Melt.