Page:The case for women's suffrage.djvu/110

 BY MARGARET McMILLAN

HERE are many lands in which the phrase "Woman's Suffrage" is unknown. The Chinese woman, the Hindoo woman, even the Japanese woman asks for no votes. For untold ages the woman of the East has been voiceless, immobile, shrouded, while sages and philosophers, not to speak of the populace, have accused her of every form of vice, imbecility, and weakness. She has been assured that in her there was no power, no stability of purpose, and has heard men thank God that they were not as she is. Shrouded in veils of silence she listened—and listens still.

This voiceless Eastern woman is the Mother of us all. It is strange to note how, as she fared Westward, woman began to slip from under the crushing weight of immemorial custom, and how, in early as in later days, every little gain was bought at a heavy price, bought, indeed, at times at a price which no "respectable" woman would pay. For from the "respectable" woman above all others was required, time out of mind, silence, modesty, and submission. 106