Fear of Women

by

 

An Old Prejudice

by BJ Beauchamp 

The 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution says that no government action may prevent a citizen from voting.   But it would be almost 100 years before the full meaning of that amendment was achieved.  Instead of being able to vote, non-white men faced a changing bar of qualifications, including poll taxes and literacy levels.  Women, no matter what creed, or color, or education level were simply not even considered.  A woman could give birth to a future President of the United States, raise him, and keep him safe through his childhood — but she could not vote. 

The meaning of suffrage comes from the Latin word suffragari which is to support with one's vote, and/or the right of voting, and/or the exercise of such right.  So a suffragette is a woman who advocates suffrage for women.  Some 5,000 suffragists marched in Washington, D.C. for the women's rights movement in 1913.  Two years later a petition with 500,000 signatures in support of women's suffrage amendment was given to President Woodrow Wilson.  85 years before Danica Patrick is named Indy’s Rookie of the Year in 2005, there was the 19th Amendment which finally gave women the right to vote, in 1920.

Prior to that 19th Amendment, there would be a great deal of pain and humiliation for those women who stood up for the right to vote. Before Martin Luther King would make popular the peaceful protest, the suffragettes in the United States were jailed for non violent dissent.  While incarcerated, these brave women were beaten, grabbed, dragged, choked and kicked.

Perhaps American men were fearful the suffragettes would become like their sisters across the pond who had chained themselves to railings, set fire to the contents of mailboxes, and smashed windows. Suffragette Emily Davison died after she stepped out in front of the King's horse at the Epsom Derby in 1913. Many of her fellow suffragettes were imprisoned and went on hunger strikes, during which they were restrained and forcibly fed. 

Not all men feared women voting. The state of Wyoming granted suffrage to women in 1869.  In 1893 the men of Colorado voted to give the women of their state the right to vote.  It would only take another 27 years until the nation would change its laws.  You would not think that a man with three daughters would have issue granting women the right to vote but the 28th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, a father of three girls, a Democrat and two-term President, was as flawed as anyone else – he allowed his Cabinet to establish segregation in federal offices, and sanctioned 250,000 members of the semi-private organization the American Protective League in 600 cities.  The APL carried out warrantless searches and interrogations, essentially becoming the national police.  Only after the women calling themselves the “Silent Sentinels” protested in front of the White House with banners marked “Mr. President–What will you do for woman suffrage?  Absolutely nothing,” did the President announce support for women’s right to vote in 1918. President Wilson would not win his party’s nomination for a third term in 1920. 

British women would finally receive the right to vote as a result of the Representation of the People Act in 1928. 

Sadly, in other parts of the world women continue to be second class citizens, and in some places they are simply property. Currently Iran is the only country in the world that practices stoning to execute those who commit adultery. Per Islamic value Article 102 of the Penal code, states that married offenders (adulterers) are liable to stoning regardless of their gender, but the method laid down for a man stipulates he be buried up to his waist, and a woman up to her neck.

Adineh magazine wrote in summer 1991: "An 11-year-old Iranian girl was married off to a 27-year-old man. The father, who had seven daughters, received $300 for his consent. The morning after the marriage ceremonies, the girl was taken to hospital suffering from severe lacerations to her genitals."  According to the Iranian penal code, a nine-year-old girl can be punished as an adult — by flogging, execution and stoning.

In a report on November 22, 1994, the United Nations Special Rapportuer on violence against women said "the public stoning and lashing of women serves to institutionalize violence against women. The Special Rapportuer has received many allegations of such violent punishments being inflicted on women in the Islamic Republic of Iran."  Per a special religious decree issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini, virgin women prisoners must be raped before execution to prevent them from going to heaven.  Most recently, Iranian Women Rights Activist Delaram Ali was sentenced to receive lashings and serve a prison term of two years and six months.  

In November of 2008, the United States of America will hold a general election and select its next President to lead for the next four years.  One of the eight democratic candidates was a woman, and one woman of color is still running for President under the Green party.  In the same year, same planet, different continent there is India practicing female feticide. 

The British publication The Lancet posted a study in 2006 which estimated that perhaps as many as 10 million unborn female babies had been aborted in India over the past two decades. Yet India is behind China in this number.

Chinese parents continue to choose to abort the female fetus so that they are in compliance with the one child per family law.  Due to the recent loss of life following the May 12th 6.4 earthquake in China, parents who lost a child or whose child was disabled will be allowed to have another child.  However chances are great they will still be vying for a male heir as the parents look upon a son as being the one who will carry on the family name and generate income to care for them in their old age. Whether or not there will be any females for the sons to marry is another issue.

Is it fear or stupidity; logic or lunacy; conditioning or hate? No matter how you add up the argument, and review the list below, there isn’t much that a woman cannot do, which may the real underlying issue.  Regardless of the root reasoning, a woman's contribution to the polity remains one of man kind’s greatest fear and oldest prejudice.

 

From www.history.com — Firsts in women’s achievements:

Ann Teresa Mathews

First woman whose invention received a patent (for cleaning and curing corn) – it was granted to her husband

1715

Mary Katherine Goddard

First woman postmaster

1775

Betsy Ross

First person to be a U.S. flag maker

1776/77

Hannah Adams

First woman to become professional writer

1784

Lucy Brewer

First woman marine

1812

Elizabeth Blackwell

First woman to receive a medical degree

1849

Amelia Jenks Bloomer

Publisher/editor of first prominent women's rights newspaper

1849

Harriet Tubman

First woman to run underground railroad to help slaves escape

1850

Lucy Hobbs

First woman to graduate from dental school

1866

Susan B. Anthony

Co-Founder of first US woman's suffrage organization

1869

Arabella Mansfield Babb

First woman admitted to the bar

1869

Frances Elizabeth Willard

First woman to become a college president (Evanston College)

1871

Victoria Chaflin Woodhull

First woman to be presidential candidate

1872

Helen Magill

First woman to receive a Ph.D. degree (Boston University)

1877

Belva Ann Lockwood

First woman to practice law before U.S. Supreme Court

1879

Clara Barton

Founder of the American Red Cross

1881

Maud Booth

Co-Founder of Salvation Army and Volunteers of America

1887/96

Suzanna Madora Salter

First woman mayor (Argonia, Kansas)

1887

Mary McLeod Bethune

First woman to establish secondary school that became 4-year accredited college

1904

Blanche Scott

First woman to fly an airplane

1910

Jeannette Rankin

First woman U.S. House Representative (Montana)

1916

Kate Gleason

First woman president of a national bank

1917

Jeannette Rankin

First woman in Congress

1917

Florence E. Allen

First woman judge

1920

Hallie Ferguson

First woman governor of U. S. state (Texas)

1924

Katherine Bement Davis

First person to conduct national survey of sexual attitudes

1929

Jane Addams

First woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize

1931

Hattie Wyatt Caraway

First woman elected to U.S. Senate

1932

Amelia Earhart

First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean

1932

Ruth Bran Owen

First woman foreign diplomat

1933

Pearl S. Buck

First woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature

1935

Hattie McDaniel

First African-American of any gender to win an Academy Award (she won for Best Supporting Actress in the film, Gone with the Wind).

1939

Linda Darnell

First woman to sell securities on the New York Stock Curb Exchange

1941

Conchita V. Cintron

First U.S. woman bullfighter in Spain

1949

Georgia Nesse Clark

First woman treasurer of the United States

1949

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova

First woman to fly in space, aboard Vostok 6.

1963

Muriel Siebert

First woman to own seat on the New York Stock Exchange

1967

Janice Lee York Romary

First woman to carry U.S. flag at the Olympic Games

1968

Mary Clarke

First woman to be named major general in U.S. Army

1978

Sandra Day O'Connor

First woman a justice of the U. S. Supreme Court

1981

Sally Kristen Ride

First American woman to reach outer space.

1983

Joan Benoit (Samuelson)

First woman to win an Olympic marathon

1984

Penny Harrington

First woman police chief of major U. S. city (Portland, OR)

1985

Ann Bancroft

First woman to walk to North Pole

1986

Christa McAuliffe

First woman citizen passenger on a space mission

1986

Lt. Col. Eileen Collins

First American woman to pilot a Space Shuttle

1995

Madeleine K. Albright

First woman Secretary of State and highest ranking woman in the U.S. government

1997

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Only First Lady ever elected to the United States Senate

2000

Halle Berry

First African-American woman to win a Best Actress Oscar

2002

Condoleezza Rice

First African-American woman to be appointed Secretary of State

2005

Nancy Pelosi

First woman to become Speaker of the House

2007