Difference between revisions of "328 2010--Week 8 Questions/Comments"
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I think Carrie Chapman Catt gave this cautionary speech to women as a way to remind them that they should not forget what they fought so hard for. She wants women to use their heads and think for themselves. She doesn't want them to vote how their husbands vote just because. She doesn't want them to only discuss politics within their homes and only influence their husbands. She wants women to realize that just voting is not enough, but they have to step into the political arena and voice their opinions. I think this probably did not go over well with many people at the time, especially conservative men. Just like in the first western states that gave women suffrage, men were probably expecting women to just follow their lead in political opinion. I'm sure they were surprised and a bit distraught to learn that Carrie Chapman Catt was directing women to learn about politics themselves, formulate their own opinions, and then fight to get their ideas and views out there. --Angie | I think Carrie Chapman Catt gave this cautionary speech to women as a way to remind them that they should not forget what they fought so hard for. She wants women to use their heads and think for themselves. She doesn't want them to vote how their husbands vote just because. She doesn't want them to only discuss politics within their homes and only influence their husbands. She wants women to realize that just voting is not enough, but they have to step into the political arena and voice their opinions. I think this probably did not go over well with many people at the time, especially conservative men. Just like in the first western states that gave women suffrage, men were probably expecting women to just follow their lead in political opinion. I'm sure they were surprised and a bit distraught to learn that Carrie Chapman Catt was directing women to learn about politics themselves, formulate their own opinions, and then fight to get their ideas and views out there. --Angie | ||
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| + | All speeches have a purpose. In her speech, Catt is trying to convince the women in the audience to position themselves on the inside of politics. In this case, the audience is the League of Women Voters, whose stated goal was to prove that women could be effective, involved voters. Therefore, this audience would likely to agree with Catt’s opinion that the fight for suffrage was hard, but the potential revolutionary impact of women having the right to vote hadn’t yet been realized. Had Catt given this same speech to a different audience I doubt she would have had the excited reaction and applause as she did when speaking to the League of Women Voters. Some women were happy merely having the right to vote, and probably would have seen Catt’s opinions about women being in the most public of positions wrong because they were against the perceived gender roles of the time. It is important to keep in mind that the majority of women who supported women’s suffrage did so in order to support issues that they found important, for most of these women, women’s rights was not at the forefront of their priorities. --Erin Sanderson | ||
== Debate of the Equal Rights Amendment == | == Debate of the Equal Rights Amendment == | ||
