S

The woman's rights movement is more strongly organized and has penetrated
society more thoroughly in all the Germanic countries than in the Romance
countries. There are many causes for this: woman's greater freedom of
activity in the Germanic countries; the predominance of the Protestant
religion, which does not oppose the demands of the woman's rights movement
with the same united organization as does the Catholic Church; the more
vigorous training in self-reliance and responsibility which is customarily
given to women in Germanic-Protestant countries; the more significant
superiority in numbers of women in Germanic countries, which has forced
women to adopt business or professional callings other than domestic.[4]
The woman's rights movement in the Germanic-Protestant countries has been
promoted by _moral_ and _economic_ factors.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Total population: 91,972,267.
Women: about 45,000,000.
Men: about 47,000,000.

The General Federation of Women's Clubs.
The National American Woman's Suffrage Association.

North America is the cradle of the woman's rights movement. It was the War
of Independence of the colonies against England (1774-1783) that matured
the woman's rights movement. In the name of "freedom" our cause entered
the history of the world.

In these troubled times the American women had by energetic activities and
unyielding suffering entirely fulfilled their duty as citizens, and at the
Convention in Philadelphia, in 1787, they demanded as citizens the right
to vote. The Constitution of the United States was being drawn up at that
time, and by 1789 had been ratified by the thirteen states then existing.
In nine of these states (Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, New
Jersey, North and South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island) the
right to vote in municipal and state affairs had hitherto been exercised
by all "free-born citizens" or all "taxpayers" and "heads of families,"
the state constitutions being based on the principle: _no taxation without
representation_.

Among these "free-born citizens," "taxpayers," and "heads of families"
there were naturally many women who were consequently both voters and
active citizens. So woman's right to vote in the above-named states was
practically established _before_ 1783. Only the states of Virginia and New
York had restricted the suffrage to males in 1699 and 1777, Massachusetts
and New Hampshire