AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Illuminations magazine1/6/2024 ![]() That question arose at the beginning of the movement, stemming back to the 1800s and the abolition movement. In 1910, female student and suffrage opponent Ruby Wolfe declared, “Women’s suffrage is simply a spark set aglow by only old maids and fanned into flame by wives of henpecked husbands.” Other female students, like Orva Cleveland, questioned why women would even want to vote: “Women have as much right to vote as men, but why do they want to?” ![]() Secretary Ruth Evans began the discussion in favor of women’s rights, and her speech was described by a reporter from The University Echo “as a pretty piece of composition.” In contrast, the same reporter described a “Mr. Tyler” as making a speech on women’s suffrage that was “fluent, earnest and, at times, humorous,” in which he argued that women should not go into politics because of their “fickle and emotional nature.” This would not be the first or last time that “a fickle and emotional nature” would be used by men, or even women, as an argument against women having the right to vote. In November 1907, the Franklin Lookout orators, a student organization, held a debate about women’s suffrage. National Archives, 1918 Women suffragettes enrolling their willingness to aid their country when hostilities broke out between Germany and the United States. Though women on campus had the opportunity to speak out about the suffrage movement, their voices were often quickly silenced or rebutted by men. In June 1916, The University Echo reported an Illumination Night where women students at the University of Chattanooga lit lanterns on campus. Among the groups in attendance were female sophomore suffragists wearing yellow sashes and shouting, “Down with the tyrant man!” Quickly, they were ushered away by a group of male sophomores–not the first occurrence of suffragists voices being repressed by men on campus. Wells, Elizabeth Cady Stanton. But what about the local college activists in 1920, at what was then the University of Chattanooga? While we may not know all of their names, their activism made news─from debates, to wanted ads, to campus outcries. We know all the big-name women voting activists: Susan B. ![]() A look back to 100 years ago when women’s suffrage and the right to vote began a long, winding road to end female repression.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |