Let me make something clear:
In a modern society, I do indeed support a woman's right to vote as it is necessary for a freer society.
However, the attaining of said right further highlights how there really isn't a patriarchy in this country. I am so glad that you brought up the universal suffrage movement. It is a perfect example of yet another reason women haven't had to sacrifice as much as much in this country while reaping the benefits.
In order for men to have the right to vote, men must sign up for the selective service. This means that we, as men, are liable to be drafted if one of the government's military-industrial complex adventures goes all quagmire and we need more bodies to get shot at in order to prove how tough we are as a country. Before universal suffrage, this was the price that men had paid as a result of their privilege to vote. They didn't get any say on whether they were allowed to or not allowed to accept such an offer, but that was the price, and that was the exchange.
This was during period when the voting age was 21 (WWI), and teenage boys that did not have the right to vote were dying for others to be able to exercise said right. All the while, the suffragettes were clamoring about how unfair it was that they weren't allowed to vote. Are you beginning to see a disparity in rights and responsibilities here?
Men today are
still required to sign up for selective service. Still. Women are not. Both however, have the right to vote. While I do believe in the equality of the rights given, the lack of equality in responsibilities given is what bothers me.
Men fight and vote. Women just vote.
Link somewhat related:
White Feathers : Stories of Courage, Recruitment and Gender at the start of the Great War « Great War Fiction