The Men

Along with women who were in favor of women’s suffrage, there were also men who supported and were involved in the movement.  One may not believe or suspect men were abolitionist involving women’s suffrage, but there is proof of men actively involving themselves in the history of abolishing women’s disadvantages. 

It is important to remember that men were suffragists, too.  According to the National Women’s History Museum it addresses that the suffrage movement depended on the votes that only men could cast.

“Even when state suffrage measures were lost, the question often received tens of thousands of votes of approval.  And, of course, it was a virtually all-male Senate and House that approved the amendment, along with 36 virtually all-male legislatures that ratified it.”

Throughout history men have been involved in the American Equal Rights Association (AERA), the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), and the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) , which was founded by Lucy Stone and her husband, Henry Blackwell. 

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/naw/nawstime.html

According to Spartacus Educational, at the beginning of the 20th century, men began forming Men’s Leagues for woman suffrage.  In 1901 the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage published a list of prominent men in favor of women’s suffrage.  This included 83 former government ministers, 49 church leaders, 24 high-ranking army and navy officers, 86 academics and the writers E. M. Firster, Thomas Hardy, H.G. Wells, John Masefield and Arthur Pinero.  "By 1910 it had ten branches in Britain, and in 1912, the number of men involved with the National Men’s League reached 20,000 members."  Men even participated in the New York City’s Suffrage Parade in 1911.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wmen.htm

According to the National Women’s History Museum “During the 1910s and 1920s, male state legislators agreed to summit woman suffrage measures to state voters.  Millions of male voters voted to approve these measures.  Union men, in particular, were often strong supporters of woman suffrage.”

http://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/rightsforwomen/menforsuffrage.html

Some significant male figures in the women’s suffrage include: James Mott, Frederick Douglass, Congressman Henry A. Barnhart, Congressman Thetus W. Sims, and Congressman Fredrick C. Hicks who left his wife’s “deathbed in order to vote for woman suffrage.”

According to the website Spartacus Educational, some other leaders include: James Keir Hardie, George Lansbury, Harold Laski, Gerald Gould, and Philip Snowdon.

Although the majority of the male population was not in favor of women’s suffrage, we need to remember that there were men that supported and fought for women's rights.

Sources used in this section of our blog include:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wmen.htm
http://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/rightsforwomen/menforsuffrage.html
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/naw/nawstime.html