Step into my Time Machine back to 1918

Would you have been FOR or AGAINST allowing Woman to vote for the first time?

Here are some of the arguments of the day AGAINST allowing  Women the vote


Against Women Suffrage
 
Because women already have the municipal vote, and are eligible for membership of most local authorities.   These bodies deal with questions of housing, education, care of children, workhouses and so forth, all of which are peculiarly within a woman's sphere.   Parliament, however, has to deal mainly with the administration of a vast Empire, the maintenance of the Army and Navy, and with questions of peace and war, which lie outside the legitimate sphere of woman's influence.
 
Because all government rests ultimately on force, to which women, owing to physical, moral and social reasons, are not capable of con­tributing.
 
Because women are not capable of full citizenship, for the simple reason that they are not available for purposes of national and Imperial defence.   All government rests ultimately on force, to which women, owing to physical, moral and social reasons, are not capable of contributing.
 
Because there is little doubt that the vast majority of women have no desire for the vote.
 
Because the acquirement of the Parliamentary vote would logically involve admission to Parliament itself, and to all Government offices.   It is scarcely possible to imagine a woman being Minister for War, and yet the principles of the Suffragettes involve that and many similar absurdities.
 
Because the United Kingdom is not an isolated state, but the administrative and governing centre of a system of colonies and also of dependencies.   The effect of introducing a large female ele­ment into the Imperial electorate would undoubtedly be to weaken the centre of power in the eyes of these dependent millions.
 
Because past legislation in Parliament shows that the interests of women are perfectly safe in the hands of men.
 
Because Woman Suffrage is based on the idea of the equality of the sexes, and tends to establish those competitive relations which will destroy chivalrous consideration.
 
Because women have at present a vast indirect influence through their menfolk on the politics of this country.
 
Because the physical nature of women unfits them for direct com­petition with men.

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Other Arguments Against:

Some men objected to women having the vote because they believed them to be inferior.   It was suggested that women could not think out matters coolly and calmly.   

Others would not agree to women’s suffrage because they did not want change.   Women had never voted before.   Why should they start now?   

A further objection involved property.   In 1900, few women were householders or lodgers.   If the vote were given to them, then it would have to be given also to men who were not householders or lodgers.   At that time political parties were not prepared to do this.

Women would be corrupted by politics and chivalry would die out

Women were emotional creatures, and incapable of making a sound political decision.

If women became involved in politics, they would stop marrying, having children, and the human race would die out

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Interesting food for thought.

P.S. Women's first trip to the polls in 1918 came with certain conditions - they had to be over thirty years of age and land owners, a restriction that wasn't lifted until ten years later in 1928.