The Pittsburgh Press (August 5, 1944)
Ferguson: Women voters
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
A valued correspondent writes:
I don’t see what good it does women to have the vote or equal rights if they don’t use them. do you remember what the main argument for suffrage was? When women get the vote, we said, they will outlaw war.
I remember – with bitterness and sorrow. Women have not done one-half of one percent of what they might have done with the ballot. In a period when they control so much wealth, and are numerically superior to men, they remain political nonentities. But they know it – and that’s something.
The fact that they felt completely helpless to prevent World War II opened the minds of millions of feminine voters. At last, they realize how cheap talk is. Having fine ideals and making them work are two very different things. Noble aims, unless implemented by political power, will get us nowhere.
That’s what we’ve learned in the 24 years since we were given the franchise. If the lesson is well learned, the years were not wasted.
Today, of course, many millions of women are unaware of their power – they just aren’t interested. Lots of men are like that too. It’s a trait of human nature, not of sex.
But other millions are awakening to their citizenship duties and rights. They realize that politics is a game, as well as a science, and they must learn to play that game. Men make the rules, and perhaps they will go on making them foe a long, long time. But women will go on learning too – slowly, haltingly, at first, but with determination – and the man who discounts our desire for self-improvement in the arts of political finesse is due for some bad times. So far, we’ve mastered just about all the tricks of masculine trades. Don’t fool yourself that we can’t master those of the politicians.
If you want help in learning about the franchise, get Eve Garrette’s Political Handbook for Women. It is an excellent text for new voters and for those whom the war has made newly aware of their ballot privileges and powers.