5. Their Mission


Each woman, on either side of the discussion, held within her motivations and a mission which spurned her decision to pick her battle. Their reasons for opposition varied with each individual and were laid out plainly in the NAOWS’s declaration of Some Reasons Why We Oppose Votes for Women published in 1894. Some felt that women could not be responsible voters as they were disallowed the opportunity to be agents of the government through the military or law enforcement.[1] Others had a fundamental disagreement against the idea that those in support of Women’s Suffrage merely wanted to double the voting capacity of the major cities acting as an additional vote to their husband, or even nullifying his vote should she disagree.[2] Elaborating on that same line of objection, many felt that the system was already broken with male participation and that adding women to the mess would only hurt the cause rather than contribute to its repair.[3] Then there was the ethical dilemma that women already had enough to do in their daily lives that adding one more responsibility of educated voting would render the right an obligation, “our appreciation of their importance requires us to protest against all efforts to infringe upon our rights by imposing upon us those obligations which cannot be separated from suffrage…”[4] The NAOWS concluded their manifesto by stating that their male counterparts “…represent us at the ballot box. Our fathers and our brothers love us; our husbands are our choice; and one with us; our sons are what WE MAKE THEM.”[5] Further defending their willingness to abdicate their right to vote by stating, “We are content that they represent US in the corn-field, on the battle-field, and at the ballot-box, and we THEM in the school-room, at the fireside, and at the cradle.”[6] Moral arguments also breeched the surface including a severe concern against the Suffrage Movement’s support of Margaret Sanger and her ideals about birth control and planned parenting, placing the right of reproduction in the hands of the woman rather than the right of the family.[7]
SOURCE



[1] National Association Opposed To Woman Suffrage. Some reasons why we oppose votes for women ... National association opposed to woman suffrage. New York City. New York, 1894. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.1300130c/.
[2] Ibid 1
[3] Ibid 1
[4] Ibid 1
[5] Ibid 1
[6] Ibid 1
[7] "Margaret Sanger and the Women's Suffrage Movement." CSUN Oviatt Library. September 18, 2018. Accessed April 28, 2019. https://library.csun.edu/SCA/Peek-in-the-Stacks/sanger.