Saturday, June 25, 2011

Women’s Sufferage History’s First Glass Ceiling - The Logic of the Law?

The Logic of the Law
In 1875 the Supreme Court of Wisconsin in denying the petition of women
to practise before it said:
“It would be shocking to man’s reverence for womanhood and faith in
woman … that woman should be permitted to mix professionally in all
the nastiness which finds its way into courts of justice.”
It then names thirteen subjects as unfit for the attention of
women–three of them are crimes committed against women.
Adapted from ARE WOMEN PEOPLE? A BOOK OF RHYMES FOR SUFFRAGE TIMES
by ALICE DUER MILLER
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I have a graduate degree in history and I love history in all it’s forms–especially women’s history. A graduate degree in women’s studies was not an option at the university where I received my MA in History so I had to make do with a more generalized degree. However, in every class I made up for the lack by researching the condition of women in each age that I studied. I have always been fascinated by women’s history, so I thought I would start sharing some of the lost treasures that I uncover. I believe that most people have curious minds and like glimpses of how the world was, and how things were perceived in the past. I firmly believe in the idea that we must remember history in order to learn from it, grow and hopefully cut down on the number of stupid mistakes that random impulse and intellectual curiosity and greed and a thousand other human motivators lead us to make.
 Smiles and Good Fortune,
Teresa Thomas Bohannon
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It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.
– W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915

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