The Republican Party in Congress could become even more male

IN 1776 ABIGAIL ADAMS urged her husband John to “remember the ladies”, warning him that women “are determined to foment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.” The future president responded that for men to relinquish their political primacy would be to “subject us to the despotism of the petticoat”. Such ideas prevailed even into the early 1900s, when opponents of women’s suffrage argued that their votes would be redundant, merely duplicating those of their husbands. Yet suffragettes chipped away at public opinion, and the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, was certified 100 years ago this week.