AHC: Earlier Women's Rights in the United States

[SeaBos]

First of all Happy Women's History Month! In honor of this I wanted to share a historical footnote that I have always found intriguing. From the year 1776 to 1807, women were allowed to vote in New Jersey if they passed the other qualifications for voting. Very few did and none seem to have ever cast a ballot before a new law prohibited women from voting in 1807 but it has made me wonder how the American Revolution could have had a greater effect on women's lives. Any ideas?

 

[Lucius Verus]

First of all Happy Women's History Month! In honor of this I wanted to share a historical footnote that I have always found intriguing. From the year 1776 to 1807, women were allowed to vote in New Jersey if they passed the other qualifications for voting. Very few did and none seem to have ever cast a ballot before a new law prohibited women from voting in 1807 but it has made me wonder how the American Revolution could have had a greater effect on women's lives. Any ideas?

Revolutions in general don't tend to favor women as it is often military men deciding most things. Then again the manpower drain of war propelled women into the armed forces and workplace. Perhaps if the American civil war was longer and bloodier? Enough that women have a chance to prove themselves as capable as men & bloody enough to keep them there at the end of the war for a generation.

Non-sequitur: I remembered the first time I stumbled upon the women's historical studies room at my university, the first thing that came to mind was: "Women's historical studies, as in there's a men's historical studies... As in his-story?"