Rachel Wilson

But most of the women in my book who were traveling the world promoting women's suffrage had children out of wedlock, had extramarital affairs or multiple sex partners or were even lesbians.

Open lesbians touring the world, making money, giving speeches, writing pamphlets and tracts, raising money for the suffrage movement.

Nobody put them in jail.

Nobody whipped them.

Was there some stigma?

Sure.

But I don't think that you can argue that stigma against those sort of things equates to oppression of women by the patriarchy.

It's always framed that way, but that's not true.

So what year did they pass the 19th Amendment?

And the 19th Amendment is what gave women the right to vote, right?

So there were women that said, I don't want the right to vote?

Yes.

Why wouldn't you just want the right to vote, even keeping a traditional household, like the right to have a say if it's about the world, it's about the United States, it's about our laws and how we're going to govern?

Yeah.

So I'll tell you what their reasoning was.

They said, we're going to lose a lot of the protection and provision that we currently enjoy.

So, for example, in the state of New York in the 1800s, as a woman entering a marriage, if you had money, if you had an inheritance that came with you when you got married.

If your husband cheated on you or left or divorced you, he couldn't take any of that.

Your inheritance was protected from your husband leaving and taking it.

And only men could be held responsible for debt.