Excerpt from The Nonsense of It: A Printed Pamphlet Arguing for Woman Suffrage (1866)
by Anonymous

"It would never do for women to vote, it would lead to such divisions in families." But political divisions do not, after all, make men quarrel half so much as religious divisions; and if you allow wives to do their own thinking in religion, why not in politics?

"I should not wish to hear my wife speak in town meeting." I should think not, unless she spoke more to the point than the average of men. Perhaps she would; no telling till she tries. And you are willing to pay a high price occasionally to hear somebody's else wife sing in public—and if it is proper for a woman to sing nonsense before an audience, why not to speak sense?

"Women are entirely distinct from men, altogether unlike, quite a different order of beings." Are they indeed? Then, if they are so distinct, how can men represent them, make laws for them, administer their rights, judge them in court, spend their tax-money? If they are the same with men, they have the same rights; if they are distinct, they have a right to a distinct representation, distinct laws, courts, property, and all the rest. Arrange it as you please, it comes to the same thing.

"A woman who takes proper care of her household, has no time to know anything about politics." Why not say, "a man who properly supports his household, has no time to know anything about politics?" How absurd to suppose that he has time to read the newspaper every day, and step round to the ballot-box once a year—and she has not?

The amount of it all is that woman must be enfranchised1; it is a mere question of time. All attempts to evade this, end in inconsistency and nonsense. Admit her right to education or to property, and she must have the right of suffrage in order to protect the property and use the education. And there are no objections to this, except such as would equally hold against the whole theory of democratic government.

1. given the right to vote

Drag the tiles to the correct boxes to complete the pairs. Not all tiles will be used.
Match the correct paraphrase with the original sentence from the passage.

Admit her right to education or
to property, and she must have the
right of suffrage in order to protect <->
the property and use the education.

If they are the same with men, they
have the same rights; if they are
distinct, they have a right to a <->
distinct representation, distinct laws,
courts, property, and all the rest.

OPTIONS:

-Suffrage would allow women
to protect themselves.

-Regardless of how similar
to or different from men
women are, they deserve more
rights than they have now.

-Because women are different
from men, they should
have different rights.

-Women with education and property
have a right to suffrage.