Nebraska was one of the last states west of the Mississippi to grant the ballot to women, who did not win full suffrage until 1920, when the national amendment was ratified. A large segment of the all-male voting population opposed it, as did some women. A group called the Nebraska Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage issued a list of ten reasons purporting to explain “why the great majority of women do not want the ballot.
“BECAUSE they have not lost faith in their fathers, husbands, sons and brothers, who afford full protection to the community, there being no call for women to relieve them of the task.
“BECAUSE in political activities there is constant strife, turmoil, contention and bitterness, producing conditions from which every normal woman naturally shrinks.
“BECAUSE the primary object of government is to protect persons and property. This duty is imposed by nature upon man, the women being by nature absolved from assuming a task to them impossible.
“BECAUSE when women noisily contest and scramble for public office–woman pitted against woman–they write an indictment of womankind against which all right-minded women strenuously protest.
“BECAUSE women can accomplish more through counselling than they ever can attain through commanding.
“BECAUSE woman suffrage will not enhance peace and harmony in the home, but, on the contrary, in the heat of a campaign, it is sure to bring about dissension and discord.
BECAUSE Nebraska women are already enjoying a greater measure of protection and privilege under the law than do women of any state where women vote.
“BECAUSE the woman worker wants rest and quietude–not political excitement.
“BECAUSE every reason supporting the claim of women to vote supports also the right of women to be consulted as to whether they shall or shall not be given the ballot.”