Existing comment:
Widows and Spinsters Only
Before the 19th Amendment granted women voting rights in 1920, this 1888 resolution proposed voting rights for widows and spinsters only, suggesting that married women were "represented" by their husbands. Part serious and part mocking, suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton testified to Congress, stating, "they are industrious, common-sense women . . . who love their country (having no husbands to love) better than themselves."
H.J. Res. 159 proposing an amendment to the Constitution to extend the right to vote to widows and spinsters who are property holders, endorsed April 30, 1888, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives |