Hola MaHigh-School - August 2017

Voti
It may seem a bit strange. What is it about being able to vote?
Well, it is the general participation in determining where the society
is moving. To have a say in the future. This is the importance
of democracy and equal rights in the broadest context.
But what is the track record of that?
We need to get beyond WW1 for seeing
any major movement towards change in
voting rights.
Be aware as well, that although democracies
were emerging in the 1800’s, the
voting rights were typically limited to men.
On top of, they had to have a certain income
or be property owners. That removed
the right to vote from the majority of people. The process was not
only about women voting. That notion of ‘one man, one vote’ was
just not enacted before we got much later as well.
It is therefore important to not see this in isolation. The whole
(European) development of democracy also encompassed women
voting.
So let us therefore turn to this aspect. Wiki says:
“Most independent countries enacted women’s
suffrage in the interwar era, including Canada
in 1917, Britain in 1918 and the United States
in 1920. Leslie Hume argues that the First
World War changed the popular mood:
The women’s contribution to the war effort
challenged the notion of women’s physical and