Feminism - Women and Memory Forum

AGAINST WOMAN SUFFRAGE 341
conduct ai this world is in the hands of men, and the women
are only foolish who do not recognise so plain a fact.
Democratic states are those in which all men are supposed to
be capable of taking part in the conduct of government. The
exclusion of women in no wise militates against this democratic
principle, because they are known to be incapable of taking part
in the conduct of government. The ideal democratic state wouldbe
one in which all men actually are capable of taking part in
the conduct of government. None such exists ; for in actuality
everywhere some men are not capable of taking part in the
conduct of government; yet, where they are so few as to be
negligible, they are admitted, as if they were, because of the inconvenience
and impracticability of excluding them. It is in
no wise a democratic ideal that all, or any, women should be
capable of taking part in the conduct of government. As a fact,
some women, having more or other strength than what is suitable
for their own function in the state and in society, are capable of
taking part in the conduct of government. Yet, too, they are
excluded for the same reason of the inconvenience and impracticability
of admitting them. It is a misfortune that some men
are incapable of taking part in the conduct of government; but
nothing is gained by the fact that some women are thus capable,
since it does not improve, but distinctly hinders, their own proper
function.
On the contrary, for women to be admitted to the franchise in
a democratic country, violates the democratic principle, as it
violates every principle of government, since it admits to the
potentially governing set those who, commonly and naturally,
have not even the potentiality of governing. There was an old
" Wo wir nicht mit rathen, wollen wir nicht
Germanic saying :
mit thun." ^^ Thus spoke men. They offered Mitthun, if they
had Mitrathen. But the suffragist women wish for Mitrathen,
without offering Mitthun. They reverse the saying of the kodak
people, which is " : You press the button, and we do the rest "
for they virtually say: " Let us press the button (drop a vote),
and you do the rest." This is contrary to the democratic principle
of equality, applied to those who participate in government.
Yet our women suffragists have the face to speak of their cause
as that of " equal suffrage." It is most unequal suffrage ; for,
while men's vote is an expression of will and determination,
women's vote would be an expression only of opinion and wish.
Women expect to retain their own privileges along with their
new rights; they expect to get men's privileges, without men's
80 According to Wachsmuth, Geschichte der Parteien, u. 276.
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