Jane Addams: “Why Women Should Vote”

Questions for Further Study

• 1. “May we not fairly say that American women need [the vote] in order to preserve the home?” This is Addams's final provocative question. Explain from what women should preserve their homes and how the vote would allow them to do that effectively.
• 2. Explore Jane Addams's statement at the beginning of the essay “that woman's place is within the walls of her home.” How does Addams construct her own pro-suffrage argument from such an apparently patriarchal premise?
• 3. Analyze the interaction of the categories of gender, race, and class within the argument of “Why Women Should Vote.”