The Pittsburgh Press (October 21, 1944)
Ferguson: New privilege
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
Next February, French women will vote for the first time. The news is one indication that the democratic spirit spreads.
I once heard Eve Curie say that French women did not need the ballot. Without it, they still exercised a great influence over men’s political thought and activities. She believed in the old “power-behind-the-throne idea.”
Since she said that, France has been overrun and ruled for four years by enemy tyrants. It would be absurd to say that lack of feminine voting rights ad anything to do with that tragedy. But it would not be absurd to ponder how much French women have done for their unhappy land during its days of misery and defeat.
Without their help, the Maquis might have been crushed; and since the Maquis gave such great assistance to the liberating armies this summer, women deserve a share in their glory.
Probably France would not have been spared her humiliation, if her women had had the franchise after 1914. Since we are usually as stupid as men, there can be no positive statements about that. Women must also have failed to see the dangers of disunity when factions were tearing France apart and softening it up for conquest.
Nevertheless, in the future, France like other nations will have many women who do not possess a man to influence. These women as well as others bear the anguish of war, and the deprivations of economic disaster. Men of justice and goodwill no longer can withhold from them the right to a share in political authority.