"The fact that the movement was carried on by women who, for the most part, had no money of their own and were totally inexperienced in organization, and that they won their fight in about two generations, makes a story often dramatic and always worth preserving"
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Allen writes like a jurist with a novelist’s respect for evidence: the suffrage movement’s victory is not framed as destiny or moral inevitability, but as an improbable win against structural disadvantages. Her key move is to stack the odds in plain language - no money, no organizational experience - then let the outcome deliver the indictment. If a group denied economic autonomy and institutional training can still reorganize public life within “about two generations,” the real story isn’t just women’s perseverance; it’s how flimsy the supposedly natural order looks once it’s tested.
The phrase “for the most part” is doing subtle legal work. Allen avoids romanticizing the movement into a single heroic archetype, acknowledging class variation while still emphasizing the central constraint: dependence. “Totally inexperienced in organization” is similarly double-edged. On the surface it sounds like a deficit; underneath, it spotlights how political competence is often withheld and then used as a gatekeeping standard. Women weren’t “unprepared” by temperament, they were kept unprepared by design.
Calling it “often dramatic and always worth preserving” signals another agenda: memory as civic infrastructure. Allen, a judge who lived through the era when women’s public authority was still contested, is arguing against historical amnesia. Preserve this story not as inspiration porn, but as proof of how rights get made: slowly, collectively, and by people the system insists are unqualified until they win.
The phrase “for the most part” is doing subtle legal work. Allen avoids romanticizing the movement into a single heroic archetype, acknowledging class variation while still emphasizing the central constraint: dependence. “Totally inexperienced in organization” is similarly double-edged. On the surface it sounds like a deficit; underneath, it spotlights how political competence is often withheld and then used as a gatekeeping standard. Women weren’t “unprepared” by temperament, they were kept unprepared by design.
Calling it “often dramatic and always worth preserving” signals another agenda: memory as civic infrastructure. Allen, a judge who lived through the era when women’s public authority was still contested, is arguing against historical amnesia. Preserve this story not as inspiration porn, but as proof of how rights get made: slowly, collectively, and by people the system insists are unqualified until they win.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
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