This paper examines the growth of government during this century as a result of giving women the right to vote. Using cross-sectional time-series data for 1870 to 1940, we examine state government expenditures and revenue as well as voting by U.S. House and Senate state delegations and the passage of a wide range of different state laws. Suffrage coincided with immediate increases in state government expenditures and revenue and more liberal voting patterns for federal representatives, and these effects continued growing over time as more women took advantage of the franchise. Contrary to many recent suggestions, the gender gap is not something that has arisen since the 1970s, and it helps explain why American government started growing when it did.
I read an excellent biography of Louisa May Alcott and the transcendentalists that went into this matter, only from the leftist perspective. But even from the other side, it somewhat explained how that whole silly movement tied into feminism and liberal politics. As ever with liberals, they loved all mankind and demanded rights for women in general, while treating their own wives shabbily.
Thank you for posting this.