Flesh and Blood So Cheap by Albert Marrin

Author:Albert Marrin [Marrin, Albert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-97660-4
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2011-11-14T16:00:00+00:00

An illustration of the workhouse on Blackwell’s Island, 1866. (picture credit 4.12)

Enter the Mink Coat Brigade

Still others saw the Uprising of the Twenty Thousand as more than a struggle over wages and working conditions. Called “feminists,” they believed the Chinese proverb “Women hold up half the sky”—that women are just as important to the world as men. It followed that women should have equality with men and the same rights as they did, especially the vote. Women could not vote because, opponents said, politics would take away their charm, making them unfit wives and mothers. (In 1922, the United States adopted the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote.)

Alva Belmont disagreed. She was the widow of a millionaire banker, and her family owned New York City’s major subway lines. An ardent feminist, too, she urged women: “Pray to God. She will help you.” Belmont wanted women priests, women judges, women athletes—women everything. But none of that could happen unless women won the right to vote. A feminist poem titled “Why?” explained her reasoning.

Why are you paid less than a man?

Why do you work in a fire-trap?

Why are your hours so long? …

BECAUSE YOU ARE A WOMAN AND HAVE NO VOTE.

VOTES MAKE THE LAW.

VOTES ENFORCE THE LAW.

THE LAW CONTROLS CONDITIONS.

WOMEN WHO WANT BETTER CONDITIONS MUST VOTE.17

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