Woman's Suffrage Movement
Discovering that much of the support for moderation came from women, the Temperance Union increasingly became active in advocating the cause of women's suffrage, an area in which Sheppard quickly became prominent. Her interest in women's suffrage, however, went beyond practical considerations regarding temperance: her views were made well known with her statement that "all that separates, whether of race, class, creed, or sex, is inhuman, and must be overcome." Sheppard proved to be a powerful speaker and a skilled organiser, and quickly built support for her cause.
The Temperance Union presented a petition in favour of women's suffrage to Parliament in 1891. It was supported in Parliament by John Hall, Alfred Saunders, and the Premier, John Ballance. Sheppard played a considerable part in organising the petition. A second petition, larger than the first, was presented the following year, and a third, still larger, was presented in 1893. That year, a women's suffrage bill was successfully passed, granting women full voting rights. Sheppard herself was widely acknowledged as the leader of the women's suffrage movement.
Sheppard had no time to rest, however, as the 1893 election was only ten weeks away. Along with the Temperance Union, she was highly active in getting women to register as voters. Despite the short notice, nearly two thirds of women cast a vote.
Read more about this topic: Kate Sheppard
Famous quotes containing the words woman suffrage, woman, suffrage and/or movement:
“Can you conceive what it is to native-born American women citizens, accustomed to the advantages of our schools, our churches and the mingling of our social life, to ask over and over again for so simple a thing as that “we, the people,” should mean women as well as men; that our Constitution should mean exactly what it says?”
—Mary F. Eastman, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 ch. 5, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“All observations point to the fact that the intellectual woman is masculinized; in her, warm, intuitive knowledge has yielded to cold unproductive thinking.”
—Helene Deutsch (1884–1982)
“Having a thirteen-year-old in the family is like having a general-admission ticket to the movies, radio and TV. You get to understand that the glittering new arts of our civilization are directed to the teen-agers, and by their suffrage they stand or fall.”
—Max Lerner (b. 1902)
“You watched and you saw what happened and in the accumulation of episodes you saw the pattern: Daddy ruled the roost, called the shots, made the money, made the decisions, so you signed up on his side, and fifteen years later when the women’s movement came along with its incendiary manifestos telling you to avoid marriage and motherhood, it was as if somebody put a match to a pile of dry kindling.”
—Anne Taylor Fleming (20th century)