Why weren't women allowed to vote in the old days, rationally speaking?

Asked by Valhalla at 28 April,2013


Best Answer:

∦₪₡℧฿âŠ"â'€ at 28 April,2013
The status of women's voting rights varied with time and by state. The notion that women simply were never allowed to vote at all before 1920 is a feminist lie, although there were periods in the 1800s when not a single state allowed women to vote, or when almost no states did. On the other hand, New Jersey is an example of a state that allowed women to vote as early as the 1700s, just after the American Revolution. Voting rights also often depended on the ownership of property, which meant that there were periods when the majority of men (the poorer classes always making up the majority) couldn't vote either. Rationally speaking, the reason was because the emphasis was on the family unit in those times. Each family got one vote, and the husband, as the representative of the family, voted on behalf of the family. This doesn't mean that most men didn't consult their families, but there obviously would have been some cases of abuse. And it should be emphasized that this wasn't the exploitation of women. It's similar to how throughout much of history, women couldn't go to jail. If a woman broke the law, her husband went to jail, because he was obligated to protect her and that protection even extended to the law. That's why she was expected to submit to him fully, because he at least had to have that authority over her if he was going to take the burden of her actions on himself. Even so, as early as the 1600s, laws were on the books to prevent wife beating, often prescribing a public lashing to any husband who hit his wife. The notion that men were simply the ones in charge and were exploiting their position is a very simple-minded and one-sided view of history.

Other Answers:

1. Because all evil comes from women.
   
2. They weren't thought to be intelligent enough to make an informed vote and they were thought as below men so why should they get to choose stuff? Plus they were seen as a bit nuts, having a sex drive was seen as a mental issue i.e. Hysterical
   
3. Because men were smart enough to know that letting them have a voice would cause nothing but disagreement, disadvantages to men, and benefits to only women. So they created a role for them to stay in the house so they wouldn't have to worry about that. Fast forward in time and that knowledge has fading from man's brain and now all you see is laws like "don't hit women" allowing them to automatically make false accusation. which would've never been the case back in the day.
   
4. Because it was believed that a woman would have the same political view as her husband, if any at all. Therefore she already has representation via her husbands vote.
   
5. The status of women's voting rights varied with time and by state. The notion that women simply were never allowed to vote at all before 1920 is a feminist lie, although there were periods in the 1800s when not a single state allowed women to vote, or when almost no states did. On the other hand, New Jersey is an example of a state that allowed women to vote as early as the 1700s, just after the American Revolution.
   
   Voting rights also often depended on the ownership of property, which meant that there were periods when the majority of men (the poorer classes always making up the majority) couldn't vote either.
   
   Rationally speaking, the reason was because the emphasis was on the family unit in those times. Each family got one vote, and the husband, as the representative of the family, voted on behalf of the family. This doesn't mean that most men didn't consult their families, but there obviously would have been some cases of abuse.
   
   And it should be emphasized that this wasn't the exploitation of women. It's similar to how throughout much of history, women couldn't go to jail. If a woman broke the law, her husband went to jail, because he was obligated to protect her and that protection even extended to the law. That's why she was expected to submit to him fully, because he at least had to have that authority over her if he was going to take the burden of her actions on himself. Even so, as early as the 1600s, laws were on the books to prevent wife beating, often prescribing a public lashing to any husband who hit his wife. The notion that men were simply the ones in charge and were exploiting their position is a very simple-minded and one-sided view of history.
   
6. A lot of people in the past had the idea politics was a corrupt dirty system (I cannot imagine why) and women needed to be kept pure and out of it as much as possible. Take from that whatever you want. Men were considered to be the heads of households and were essentially considered to be casting a vote for the entire household.