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About Why the Housekeeper Needs the Vote (Unabridged)

Anne O'Hagan Shinn (1869-1933) was a feminist, suffragist, journalist, and writer of short stories who regularly contributed to publications such as Vanity Fair and Harper's . She is known for her writings detailing the exploitation of young women working as shop clerks in early 20th-century America. Why the Housekeeper Needs the Vote is a pamphlet published by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, in New York, in 1900. The author spells out why the housekeeper needs the right to vote: "It would rejoice my soul exceedingly could I have a voice in appointing the men who inspect the foodstuffs, the weights and measures, the cold-storage plants, and all the institutions in which I, as a housekeeper, am vitally and - even if I were an anti-suffragist - legitimately interested" and "I am aware, dear anti-suffragist, that the tenement-house commissioner of New York is appointed by the mayor, and is not directly elected by the ballots of the voters; but I am also aware that I have no part in electing that mayor, and have no political claim upon his consideration when I wish to complain of the action, or the lack of action, of his appointee."