The First Sin? Feminism, the vote and a false narrative.

We have all heard the story about the first wave feminists. It is a tragic story of all the women who under the oppression of men were denied the vote and of the brave trailblazers of the Suffragist movement who took the men on. We have heard of the women who faced imprisonment, forced feeding and in a few cases death at the hands of the male establishment to gain this basic right. It is implied that all men (provided they are white) should feel shame for this travesty of natural justice and that a historical debt is owed to all women to correct this injustice.

First let me state that the restriction of the right to vote was in retrospect a travesty. I do not defend the states who attempted to crush the movement for universal suffrage. It was wrong.

But why are men to blame? Let me ask you a question. When was male universal suffrage (the right to vote for every man over the age of 21) granted in the UK? Perhaps the Great Reform Act of 1832 when the rotten borough systems were finally done away with? Nope this only extended the electorate form approximately 500,000 to 800,000 of the wealthiest propertied men. Later in 1867 those allowed to vote was doubled again to approximately 2,000,000 men. In 1884 a Third Reform Act was passed this time extending suffrage to all men paying an annual rental of £10 and all those holding land valued at £10. This massively extended the male vote, but still it is estimated that 40% of the male population were too poor to vote.

So when was universal male suffrage granted in the UK? The answer is 1918 in The Representation of the People Act. This is exactly the same act in which approximately 8.4 million women were also given the vote. Women got universal suffrage a decade later in 1928 when the remaining poorer women were given the vote.

Just consider this for a minute. The current crop of feminists speaks of the lack of voting rights for women at the turn of the century as if it were some kind of patriarchal original sin. Yet the poorest men in the community were in exactly the same situation. My great grandfather was a corporal in the British Army in 1914. That meant that he was paid around 1 shilling and 8 pence per day, or £30.4 per year. Therefore at the outbreak of the First World War my great grandfather who was about to be chucked head first into one of the most terrible wars in history COULD NOT VOTE.

World war one changed everything. It was morally inconceivable that the men who had fought so hard and whose brothers, sons and fathers had died in such numbers in the war would be further denied the vote. Similarly there could be no moral or rational argument for denying women the vote after the efforts they had expended on the home front, especially in the armaments industry. There can be no excuses that all women were not included in the 1918 bill. Nevertheless there was no massive struggle to enfranchise the poorer women with the associated pain and despair that earlier struggles for both male and female suffrage had necessitated. Instead the final hurdle was crossed with barely any push back and indeed it is the 1918 Act not the 1928 Act that most feminists will point to as their crowning achievement.

This idiotic gender war bullshit has got to end. Our forefathers did indeed fight a painful and bloody battle for both female and male suffrage. For a very short period of time it is possible to see a majority of males on the other side fighting against women’s suffrage from a period of 1884 to 1918 (34 years). For the century of more before this almost all males and all females were denied the vote and in some cases justice by an elitist culture that was reluctant to give up what it considered its natural right to power. Blaming all men for this is so historically inept and ignorant it boggles the mind that this narrative has remained unchallenged for so long.

Dear feminists, once again the facts do not back up your narrative. I owe you nothing for this historical wrong as my ancestors were not responsible. Please stop blaming.