Woodrow Wilson
After Roosevelt, another progressive president sat at the White House. Hopes were high. Dancing around the topic continued, though. Wilson's rhetoric was both practical and visionary. He did not hesitate to bring about sweeping changes in the field of tariffs, finances and corporate influence. He saw himself as the embodiment of public welfare. Also, he did not hesitate to use idealism as a rhetorical device to push through his 14 points at the Peace Treaty of Versailles in 1918, the creation of the League of Nations was his vision for a "new world order" based on peace and cooperation among the nations based on justice for all. Although he believed that the President was "the only voice in national affairs," he would not show the slightest concern for women. (7) Furthermore, for all his idealism about a safer world he displayed a cold and distant interest for the female majority of the population since his early days as a professor at Bryn Mawr College. Wilson was "unhappy and uncomfortable in a women's institution." (8) He left in 1888 after three years of teaching. It is difficult to understand such a contradiction between his genuine concern about justice and his neglect of women's social inequalities. His mockery of women's political involvement will show later on during his 1912 presidential campaign trail when he stated to one of his staff member that "women's place was in the home and that type of woman who took active part in the suffrage agitation was totally abhorrent to him." (9)
True, the 19th Amendment was drafted in 1919 while Wilson was in office. In reality, though, his change of heart was more the result of a political calculation than a sincere belief in women's rights. As we will see, he did eventually support women's suffrage. It might have been that women had already been granted voting rights in many of the Western states by 1912. Besides, Wilson needed all support he could gather to join the war in Europe. He modified his position on women when it was clear that Congress would have granted voting rights with or without Wilson's support. One reason women successfully won the right to vote was that they proved themselves during the war. They earned male respect for being an efficient and reliable working force while the "boys" were fighting in Europe.
Wilson had all the ingredients to improve the female condition: shining idealism, a sincere sense of justice, and a belief that Presidential rhetoric should lead Congress by leading public opinion. I would argue that Wilson, unlike Roosevelt, brought to the Presidency typical male prejudices that overshadowed his rational, compassionate side.
Common male ideology relegated women to the domestic sphere to create a refuge from the cruel outside world. The rational that biology as well as the will of God infused humans with determined characteristics was widely accepted. Essentially, women's role in society was one of innocence, honesty, submissive, educator, and above all guardian of the family. If we turned the clock back in time, we would realize how citizen Wilson reflected the popular discursive reality of the time which presented women as whimsical abnormalities if speaking out for equality. Wilson reflects this state of mind when describing a Women's Congress meeting for the advancement of women in Baltimore: "a severely dressed [woman], an old maid from the straightest sect of maid... a living example of what might be done by giving men's place and duties to women." (10)
Suffragettes uncovered another of Wilson's inconsistencies about women when they criticized him in 1917 for making the world safe for democracy yet deny them the vote. By the way, keep in mind that ultimately Wilson suspended his patronizing attitude towards women when, on the eve Congress voted to amend the constitution, he made a last minute plea with the Senate to pass the 19th Amendment. Wilson considered women for their femininity and love for the family. He was, of course, a man of his times. Males often believed that ideals of service and sacrifice for the family belonged exclusively to women. After all, the overwhelming majority of women hardly contested a reality that forbade them from voting, serving on juries, receiving economic as well social recognition such as access to higher education and equal pay.
Comments: