미국독립혁명기 뉴저지 여성참정권의 기원 (The Origins of Women’s Suffrage in Revolutionary New Jersey)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국아메리카학회
· 수록지 정보 : 미국학 논집 / 43권 / 2호 / 171 ~ 195페이지
· 저자명 : 박은진

초록

This study explores the origins of women’s suffrage in revolutionary New Jersey. By using a gender-neutral word, ‘inhabitants,’ to designate voters, the suffrage clause of the 1776 constitution of the colony implied that qualified women could vote. Why did the Founding Fathers of New Jersey use the gender-neutral word? Unlike the conventional assertion that the suffrage clause resulted from the New Jersey Founding Fathers’ careless mistake, it was never made in a hurry in June and July 1776. Rather it had already been completed and adopted in February of the year as a new election law of the colony. The new law was merged into the 1776 constitution. The constitution was not a product of a democratic experiment to extend women’s rights, either.
In order to understand why the suffrage clause included the gender-neutral word, we need to trace the traditions of election laws in colonial New Jersey. In all of the major laws of 1665, 1672, 1677, 1683, and 1702, voters were called inhabitants, householders, or freeholders. None of them were gender-specific. That was a reflection of the reality. Property-owning femme soles had been called gender-neutrally especially in West New Jersey, where property-holding women had been welcomed and where the Quaker ideal of equality was valued. The custom of using gender-neutral words in legal terms continued throughout the colonial period of New Jersey. The tradition paved the way for female suffrage in New Jersey. The 1776 New Jersey constitution was significant in that the suffrage clause enabled New Jersey women to vote−nowhere else in the new nation.

영어초록

This study explores the origins of women’s suffrage in revolutionary New Jersey. By using a gender-neutral word, ‘inhabitants,’ to designate voters, the suffrage clause of the 1776 constitution of the colony implied that qualified women could vote. Why did the Founding Fathers of New Jersey use the gender-neutral word? Unlike the conventional assertion that the suffrage clause resulted from the New Jersey Founding Fathers’ careless mistake, it was never made in a hurry in June and July 1776. Rather it had already been completed and adopted in February of the year as a new election law of the colony. The new law was merged into the 1776 constitution. The constitution was not a product of a democratic experiment to extend women’s rights, either.
In order to understand why the suffrage clause included the gender-neutral word, we need to trace the traditions of election laws in colonial New Jersey. In all of the major laws of 1665, 1672, 1677, 1683, and 1702, voters were called inhabitants, householders, or freeholders. None of them were gender-specific. That was a reflection of the reality. Property-owning femme soles had been called gender-neutrally especially in West New Jersey, where property-holding women had been welcomed and where the Quaker ideal of equality was valued. The custom of using gender-neutral words in legal terms continued throughout the colonial period of New Jersey. The tradition paved the way for female suffrage in New Jersey. The 1776 New Jersey constitution was significant in that the suffrage clause enabled New Jersey women to vote−nowhere else in the new nation.

참고자료

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