Did Women Want To Vote?

Only 4% of women supported the suffragette movement.

As a libertarian I don’t believe in electoral democracy¹, so I’ve never seen the 19th amendment as some kind of great moral victory. I don’t have a stake in the debate about whether women should vote, since I don’t think that anyone should vote.

Mainstream culture (and government schooling) give the impression that men didn’t want women to vote, but then women stood up and demanded their rights. In reality, neither men nor women cared very much one way or the other.

In 1895 Massachusetts held a non-binding referendum on women’s suffrage². Women (and men) could vote on whether women would be able to vote in future local elections. Suffragettes urged women to vote in favor. The women’s anti-suffrage organization MAOFESW urged women to boycott the referendum by not showing up to vote.

Only 4% of women turned out to vote in the referendum. The final tally was 109,174 (37%) in favor and 187,837 (63%) against³.

We can do some quick calculations to compare women’s and men’s support. According to a 1903 article in The Atlantic⁴, the number of women who voted for women’s suffrage was 22,204 out of 575,000 women eligible to vote. Subtracting 22,204 from 109,174 - the total number who voted in favor - we find that 86,970 men voted in favor of the referendum. So 86,970 men voted in favor of women’s suffrage and about 187,837 men voted against it, meaning that 32% of men supported women’s suffrage and 68% opposed it. (nearly all women who showed up to vote voted in favor, since those opposed did not show up to vote)

Furthermore, we can estimate men’s turnout in the referendum by assuming that there were roughly equal numbers of men and women in Massachusetts. About 274,807 men voted in the election. If there were about 575,000 men of voting age, then the voter turnout for men was 48% - roughly half.

If male turnout had been very low, maybe 4%, then the low percentage of women who voted for the referendum could be dismissed as a mere reflection of general low turnout. But that is not the case. 48% is pretty high turnout.

In 1915 Massachusetts held another referendum. This time the vote was 35% in favor and 65% against⁵.

The Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage for Women (MAOFESW) was led by women. They later changed their name to the Women’s Anti-Suffrage Association of Massachusetts⁶. They said:

The suffragists…continue to demand this undesirable and undesired privilege. While they remain active and aggressive, it is important that women opposed to female suffrage should also testify to their opinion.

1. I believe that some combination of sortition, anarcho-capitalism, and local control would be a better system.

2. https://www.nps.gov/articles/anti-suffrage-in-massachusetts.htm

3. https://ballotpedia.org/Massachusetts_Women%27s_Suffrage_for_Local_Elections_Advisory_Question_(1895)

4. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1903/09/why-women-do-not-wish-the-suffrage/306616/

5. https://ballotpedia.org/Massachusetts_Women%27s_Suffrage_Amendment_(October_1915)

6. Same as 2