University of Virginia Library

Are Women Represented?

This so-called representation bears no proportion to numbers.

Here is a man who has a wife, a widowed mother, four or five unmarried
sisters, and half a dozen unmarried daughters. His vote
represents himself and all these women, and it counts one; while
the vote of his bachelor neighbor next door, without a female relative
in the world, counts for just as much. Since the object of
taking a vote is to get at the wish of the majority it is clear that
the only fair and accurate way is for each grown person to have
one vote, and cast it to represent himself or herself.