We’re doing women’s liberation in Modern History at the moment and found a few quotes that were quite terrifying/hilarious.
…his own experience of ladies at municipal elections had been that they were somewhat weak in mind. He thought that ladies, like cats, were best kept at home.
A member of the Western Australian Parliament, 1894
You cannot make it a law of universal application that every person has a right to vote simply because he or she is a person… if we [ie. men] have grounds for thinking we can rule better than the others, then it is clearly our duty to rule.
Letter to Rose Scott
Men have come to look upon a woman as a sort of appendage to themselves, a sort of tail that only has to wag when man - the dog - is pleased. And many men’s attitude on the woman question is that of serious and painful surprise such as might reasonably overcome a respectable dog if he was informed that in future his tail would assert it’s own individuality.
Men have come to look upon a woman as a sort of appendage to themselves, a sort of tail that only has to wag when man - the dog - is pleased. And many men’s attitude on the woman question is that of serious and painful surprise such as might reasonably overcome a respectable dog if he was informed that in future his tail would assert it’s own individuality.
Rose Scott
If there is one thing more detestable than another… it is an absolutely logical woman. Why, one of the charms of woman is her utter reasonableness… who, I ask, would kiss a political woman?
A Victorian Member of Parliament, 1895
There is no safety in this State as long as these shrieking women are running about… old frumps… gawks… tabby cats… trash…
A Victorian Member of Parliament describing suffragists, 1906
