Karpilove’s article begins with women’s right to vote, but it’s about much more than that. It concerns, more broadly, women’s right to be assertive, to take up space in public, and even to look down on men who behave inappropriately. It’s a public performance of exactly the kind of bold feminine voice that the men she depicts in this piece were afraid might emerge out of women’s suffrage.
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“WOMEN’S RIGHTS”
Who knows how long it will take for people to get used to women’s suffrage. In the meantime, it’s big news and no one knows whether to take it seriously or as a joke.
You should hear the tone men took as they chatted about women’s suffrage while monitoring the voting booths.
One member of the committee said, “It’s remarkable how earnestly they come out to vote. They take much more interest in it than the men do.”
Another replied, “That’s just because the men don’t take a special election very seriously: only four congressmen to choose from to replace those who resigned. And among them not a single new candidate.”
“Even so, they come. And they’re the first to arrive!” exclaimed the first, with apparent alarm at the idea that the women might, in an unladylike fashion, surpass the men.
There was one woman among the committee of men. She wore a socialist badge and sat watching the voters intensely. She especially watched the women voters. She was so busy watching that she wasn’t at all interested in speaking to an outside person.
So I turned my attention to another woman at another polling booth instead. I wanted to talk to her to learn more about the political movement.
“What do you think of those men over there, those eight or nine committee men, those politicians?” she asked me.
“Politicians!” I said, diplomatically.
“That’s all?”
“What else is there do say? They look festive. Cheerful. Is it because women have the right to vote?”
“That’s it. And that’s why they’re—not all of them—more than a little drunk.”
“Ah.”
“And one of them already came up to me and asked me to marry him.”
“Was he serious? Which one was he?”
“He’s not there anymore. If he comes back I’ll point him out to you. What an insult!”
“An insult like that is usually meant as a compliment.” I looked over the woman on the receiving end of this offense and I must say that, whatever he meant by it, he had very good taste.