| The Revolt of Mother |
| From the book Are Women People? by Alice Duer Miller, 1915 |
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("Every true woman feels---" - Speech of almost any Congressman.)
I AM old-fashioned, and I think it right
That man should know, by Nature's laws eternal,
The proper way to rule, to earn, to fight,
And exercise those functions called paternal;
But even I a little bit rebel
At finding that he knows my job as well.
At least he's always ready to expound it,
Especially in legislative hall,
The joys, the cares, the halos that surround it,
"How women feel" -- he knows that best of all.
In fact his thesis is that no one can
Know what is womanly except a man.
I am old-fashioned, and I am content
When he explains the world of art and science
And government -- to him divinely sent
I drink it in with ladylike compliance.
But cannot listen -- no, I'm only human --
While he instructs me how to be a woman.
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About this book: In 1915, the state-by-state battle for suffrage had won a few battles. Supporters of woman suffrage had multiplied, which also brought anti-suffrage sentiments to the surface to counter the suffrage arguments.
The author of this volume of feminist humor and satire, Alice Duer Miller, wrote many of the pieces for her column in the New York Tribune, "Are Women People?" She also wrote a sequel, published in 1917, Women Are People!
Also on this site:
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- Woman Suffrage - Cast of Characters
- Woman Suffrage Articles and Links
- Woman and the Republic: An Anti-Suffrage Argument by Helen Kendrick Johnson, 1897, with later additions: the classic arguments against woman suffrage
Part of a collection of etexts on women's history produced by Jone Johnson Lewis. Editing and formatting © 1999-2003 Jone Johnson Lewis.
