12. Women Are Too High-Class and Sensitive To Participate In Politics
Some kind, caring, sensitive gentlemen fully believed that women were too high-class for banal and mundane politics; political participation and suffrage would not only not benefit them but would cause them to consort with immodest groups.
Charles Carter, a congressman from Oklahoma, told Congress, “Were it not for shattering an ideal, were it not for dethroning her from that high pedestal upon which we are accustomed to place her, and dragging her down to the level of us beastly men, I believe I might even today be willing to vote for universal woman suffrage.”
I’m not sure what “high pedestal” Congressman Carter was referring to; perhaps he had imagined a scenario in which he knew what was best for not only the women in his life but also for all women around the country. By treating them how he thought they should be addressed, rather than asking them how they want to be treated, he could easily imagine himself a savior to the female gender.
Heaven forbid that a woman’s modesty and sensitivities might be offended if she should stray into the vortex of politics. Perhaps men of that day (and of today, as well) might need to consider the possibility of behaving decently and in such a way that women don’t need to feel offended around them.