Women in Civil Society

 

     Prior to the mid 19th century, women were excluded from civil society. This is a product of the patriarchal power in the family, one that has directly translated into the belief that women are naturally inferior to men (Alexander 2006). Women were thought to possess fundamentally different qualities, such as being weaker, more emotional, and their role was exclusive to the domestic sphere. These are considered primordial traits, traits that are innate to women and dictate their position in society, or rather that their position should remain outside of society and remain within the home. It is for this reason that many elections took place before the 19th amendment was passed and women were given the right to vote. Anti-suffragists argued that women did not want to vote, and that their position within the household consumed enough of their time and energy that they did not want to stay updated on politics, while others argued that women lacked the mental capacity to be an informed voter (Lange 2015). The suffrage movement represents a certain version of civil society that exists within a certain time and place, one that has changed as members of civil society have altered their perceptions of what qualities are necessary to be a member of civil society. 

     The suffrage movement marks an important moment in the history of civil society as it serves as a documentation of the first step to integrating women within civil society and a change in what qualities are deemed necessary to be a member. Women organized marches, utilizing communicative institutions to garner support for change and the revision of history, and the 19th amendment followed as a regulatory institution to make women’s exclusion from civil society illegal. Despite the official and legal integration of women into men’s space within the voting booths and in the broader civil society, it has taken years for familiarity to follow. Alexander writes, “Long term presence in the essentialized place can cleanse and purify primordial qualities, allowing what were once considered fundamentally different characteristics to be seen, instead, as variation on a common theme” (Alexander 2006) Over time, men have mentally adjusted to women’s involvement in civil society, and they generally see the differences between men and women to be far less significant. Rather than possessing fundamentally different characteristics, men and women vary merely by genitalia, and as time progresses even this variation has been contested. 

Alexander, Jeffery. 2006. The Civil Sphere. Oxford University Press. 

Kreps, Donna. 2020. “Why the History and Significance of Women’s Suffrage Matters Today” Talk to Tucker. August 27. Retrieved March 1 2023

Lange, Allison. 2015. “National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage” Crusade For the Vote. Retrieved March 1 2023.