thetammyjo
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Joined: 9/8/2005 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: colouredin quote:
ORIGINAL: NorthernGent To be fair, the balance is being redressed slowly but surely, and that's because the likes of the suffragattes realised they had a choice. OHHHHHHH gotta say something here, the suffragettes did bog all of the womans movement except give more foundation to mysoginistic theories that women are overly emotional, the suffragists helped bring the plight to light the suffragettes acted irrationally. Women did not get the vote because of them, if it werent for the war we probably wouldnt have got the vote for a long long long time. Women got the vote to pacify them after they were kicked out of their jobs on the mens return from war. I don't think it would have been that long. Most European countries gave women the vote after WWII for some of the reasons you list above perhaps -- that's really looking into motives though and I don't know of any evidence from those who controlled the government saying that was their primary motive. American women got the vote a few years after WWI, well before many European countries. People, both men and women folks, had been working toward that goal for decades. But to the quote you cited, it did raise a point in my mind that NorthernGent may have answered his own questions about why women didn't stand up earlier and demand other rights and responsibility: they didn't realize there were options. The same reason why few enslaved groups raise up in mass to fight for their freedom or the lower classes raise up in mass for most of history: didn't realize there were other options. If you are told from the time you are born "This is the way it is" topped with religious or cultural or ethnic or whatever justifications, why would you think things could or should be different? It is a very rare person who can imagine other ways of life when all they have been told and all they see is one way. I took this amazing graduate course about revolutions for the past 300 years around the world. One thing we saw was that for the "little people" to stand up, a person from the upper class or at the very least the "upper middle class" had to stand up first. They were in a position to think about other options and they could help the lower classes see that. I think that's potentially true for many if not all cases where one group begins to stand up for more in a society. I don't think it is correct to expect groups to see possibilities out of the blue.
< Message edited by thetammyjo -- 3/24/2008 12:47:24 PM >
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Love, Peace, Hugs, Kisses, Whips & Chains, TammyJo Check out my website at http://www.thetammyjo.com Or www.tammyjoeckhart.com And my LJ where I post fiction in progress if you "friend" me at http://thetammyjo.livejournal.com/
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