Alice Duer Miller (1874-1942) wrote a woman suffrage column for the New York Tribune in 1915 and 1917 called “Are Women People?” She takes on issues and men who criticize women for wanting to vote and work. Click on the link below and read some of her columns.
(“I am opposed to woman suffrage, but I am not opposed to woman.”–_Anti-suffrage speech of Mr. Webb of North Carolina_.)
Miller replies in her column:
O women, have you heard the news
Of charity and grace?
Look, look, how joy and gratitude
Are beaming in my face!
For Mr. Webb is not opposed
To woman in her place!
O Mr. Webb, how kind you are
To let us live at all,
To let us light the kitchen range
And tidy up the hall;
To tolerate the female sex
In spite of Adam’s fall.
O girls, suppose that Mr. Webb
Should alter his decree!
Suppose he were opposed to us–
Opposed to you and me.
What would be left for us to do–
Except to cease to be?