Woman Suffrage Dbq

Opening Statement: For many centuries, women have been the backbone and caretaker the families of the United States. The maxim “behind every great man, there is a great woman” illustrates the critical role women have within society. Anti-suffragists believe women should focus on their maternal role and exercise their influence and reform through other means – through the example of her behaviour and service of men. However, it is clear that women deserve the right to vote because it is their constitutional right based on the fifteenth amendment, would increase social reform and awareness throughout the country, and is morally just in order to create a true “democratic society”.

Source Documents:
“As A War Measure - Woman Suffrage”
Speaker:

Similarly, the government is a large family with both sexes. Thus, women should be represented in their large “government family” just as they are in their personal family.
Intellectually, women have the capacity to engage in critical thinking and recognize large political implications. For example, Marion Talbot was the dean of the highly respect University of Chicago. Charlotte Perkins Gilman also expanded on the role of female subordination throughout medical journals across the country.
Women have been given suffrage in numerous countries and in several states in this Union, and partial suffrage in nearly all civilized countries. For example, women in highly civilized countries such as Great Britain and France have the right to vote. Clearly, these countries are prosperous and expanding everyday, now at an even faster rate because of women.
As of 1911, 5 million women are wage earners and their health is endangered by working conditions that can only be regulated by legislature; so far, men have been incapable in terms of recognizing this fact and providing proper legislature to protect their own wives, daughters, and

Questions
How can a society truly be democratic and representative of all the country’s people if it excludes the opinions of a major part of the population?
Many anti-suffragist activists suggest that women do not need to be politically active in order for change to occur. How is it then that millions of women work in terrible conditions and yet, little regulation exists to protect women? If men don’t legally protect women, who will?
Many women serve the government through medical assistants, the preservation and production of food, and allowing their sons to go to war. If women serve their government just as men do, why are they not afforded the same privileges?
Racism persists throughout America and yet, African Americans still have the right to vote. Why have men allowed African Americans,the right to vote and not their own wives?
If men consider politics to be such a bad place for women, why are men not representing their wives’ interests and instead creating