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“‘Women were given the right to vote.’ This is what we are taught. The statement is often framed as such, implying that non-women–i.e., men–gave them that right. The reality of why women can vote here and in many other countries does not match this rather tepid statement. In order to win the right to vote, women have defied husbands and fathers, spoke publicly, started organizations, created newspapers, held massive protests and marches, petitioned lawmakers, were jailed for protesting, went on hunger strikes, were force-fed and sometimes died, rioted in the streets, set fire to houses of anti-suffragists, and sometimes defied the law not allowing them to vote by forcibly inserting their votes into ballot boxes. . . .
“So who is it exactly, that women should be grateful to for our freedoms? Why, to feminists, of course!”
