A very serious question for the men here at DU:

[MineralMan]

18. It's a good question, indeed.

Women were considered to be chattel and were not considered to have the intelligence or reason necessary for voting. In reality, men knew that women might vote differently than they did, and that was frightening. It wasn't until the 20s that women found a good way to get that vote. Essentially, they shamed men into granting the franchise to women. They should have had it from the beginning of US history.

Less than 100 years. How shocking that seems to me today. Perhaps by 100 years from the time women insisted on their right to vote, we'll have a woman as President. It would make for a great celebration of women's suffrage. And "suffrage" is a terrific word, deriving from "suffer." Men "suffered" women to vote, in the same sense Jesus said to "suffer the little children to come..." In that meaning it means "to allow."

Women always actually HAD the right to vote. Men kept them from exercising that right. Brava! to the women who reclaimed it!