1993/01/01 by Michael X. Delli Carpini, Ester R. Fuchs · 3 citations
Social Sciences · #Gender Politics and Representation
paper · doi:10.2307/2152484
The struggle for political power has been long and difficult for women in the United States. The barriers to participation in politics have been both legal and cultural, overt and subtle. In colonial America there were few direct limits on women's participation. However, the combination of franchise restrictions based on property ownership and the overwhelming propensity for property to be held in a man's name meant that few women participated in electoral politics as either voters or officeholders.' In one of the great ironies in American political history, the war for national independence led directly to the overt disenfranchisement of women in the United States. The national constitution left the determination of voter eligibility to the newly formed states. The revolution, with its emphasis on political rights, created pressure for moving away from property-based eligibility for suffrage. In being forced in the writing of their constitutions and their voting laws to confront de jure property-based restrictions, states also had to confront the de facto prohibi-