Why Women Weren’t Originally Included in “We the People”

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]We have to remember that voting at this point is not a right. It's not a right in the Constitution.

[00:00:05]And voting is a privilege [music] for people who run a household, which is met at this point. So, even men who are adults who live in another man's household, if they're not owning property, they don't vote. So, [music] there's not this idea that the revolution meant that everybody was going to get to [music] vote. So, the idea of suggesting that women could vote was seen as patently ridiculous at this [music] point. And most women weren't even talking about it. I mean, again, as far as they were going was a few people saying, "Well, I'm taxed, but I'm not represented, [music] which seems not right." Um you don't get women publicly saying, "We should have the right to vote" until 1848 [music] with Seneca Falls. Again, it's just such a radical position that to say it publicly was to basically ostracize yourself >> [music] >> at this point. And even Elizabeth Cady Stanton saying that not all women at that meeting agreed that they should be saying that. It was the most [music] contested, you know, in her Declaration of Sentiments, where she listed all the grievances the way [music] the Declaration of Independence does, that was the most contested one, that women should be able to vote.