Is it a myth that the feminist movement won women's right to vote?

Question

Is it a myth that the feminist movement won women's right to vote?

Answer 1

No, it's not a myth.

It was the Suffragists aka 1st wave feminists who fought for the right to vote. In the USA, that took 150 years...and happened with the passage of the 19th Amendment of the Constitution.  

Yes, male political leaders did have to make the ultimate decision by ratifying that amendment, but if not for the work and activism and tenacity of many suffragists of both genders, we women would more than like still be disenfranchised.

BTW the concept of feminism/women's rights has been around since the 18th Century/Age of Enlightenment. It's just been interpreted in different ways over the years.

Answer 2

Yes it is! I think it all comes from the Magna Carta, so you could say men started feminism, do we have to do everything?

Answer 3

Just like the unions state they ended abusive children working conditions, and have not done a d**n thing since except to exploit it's own members. Kind of like feminism telling successful women they could have never done it without feminism. Economic success allows groups to move forward, not a bunch of whiners.

Answer 4

No it wasn't. Women won the right to vote and had to undergo "awful forced feedings" and "beatings" before the politicians decided to give women the right to vote or lose their popularity. Watch the movie, "Iron Jawed Angels" with Hillary Swank. The movie tells just part of the story.

Answer 5

It was feminists who started the fight for the vote. It would be a myth to say that it was just "given."

Answer 6

Yes. Fighting for the right to vote is one thing. It was the government which gave them that right in order to win elections.

Answer 7

ummm no.

Founders of feminism are the ones who fought for women right to vote.

Answer 8

Nope.

Answer 9

Well, Neil Lyndon confirms what all the textbooks say: A man started the first women's suffragette group, and it is therefore logical to say a man started feminism.

http://www.ukmm.org.uk/issues/suppressio...

Yes, since the movement later on morphed into feminism, you can say feminism won women the vote. But it is wrong to say women won women the vote, because a man was behind it all. Of course, the fact that he gets no gratitude compared to people like Dworkin is a different matter altogether...

Answer 10

Yes it certainly is a myth in the country I reside in.

Also, even i support women's right to vote, but that does not make me feminist.

Answer 11

There were other factors such as the war measures and prohibition. Men who felt women would support their causes did a great effort to get women to vote.

But all of this happened because of the groundswell of suffragettes who make the issue too hard to ignore. They also did a great deal to convince woman that they should and needed to vote.

Answer 12

The word feminism was not coined originally to name the suffragettes.  It was also not coined during the women's liberation movement as the title.  It was actually retroactively named.  I suppose the answer depends on whether or not you think that folks should have a choice what they are called and if you think that your criteria for being a feminist is the right one (and these folks in the past meet it).

Answer 13

No. Are you one of those conspiracy theory types who likes to revise history to suit your prejudices?