Why didn’t the leaders of the American Revolution extend their spirit of equality?

Question

and give women the right to vote?

Answer 1

Interesting question. The leaders of the American Revolution, as with most citizens of the 18th and early 19th century, believed that women were intellectually inferior. In order to have the right to vote, leaders such as John Adams believed you needed to have "Republican virtue," and one characteristic of that virtue was disinterestedness, meaning (in part) that you had to be wealthy enough to make up your own mind on who to vote for. Since female property was considered to be their husband's property, they could not be disinterested. They could too easily be swayed by their husbands, fathers, or brothers. Instead of the vote, the founders helped foster an ideal of "Republican Motherhood" which helped gain education for women so that they could better educate their children. Its really a loophole in thinking, but that was their reason.

Answer 2

As it is with so many other matters, context is all important.
Suffrage for women simply wasn't a popular, widespread, or, in many cases, even conceivable concept at the time of the American Revolution.
For an idea to be put into action, it first has to be born, gain general attention, be debated and become widely acceptable.
That was certainly not the case for Women's Suffrage at that time.

Answer 3

Grendle gave you a good answer. Couple with his/her answer the economies of that day and it is easy to see why those in the Continental Congress who wanted ALL men to be considered equal were unable to get the votes to achieve their goal.

All great societies have built their wealth on some form of slavery. The Communist Russians under Stalin used the Gulag system of slave labor, England used their Colonial empire, Egypt used slaves as did Rome. The USSR captured and used as slaves their own people. The gold mines of Kolyma are an excellent example of how Stalin worked his own countrymen to death in that hell on earth.

Answer 4

Same reason they didn't give blacks the vote. They were a product of their times and cultures ... white British landowners. They should not be blamed for being what they were. What is important is that they created the mechanisms that eventually DID extend the right to vote to blacks and then women (in that order, you note).

Answer 5

The original intent was one vote per family, with non married people not being allowed to vote.
It was an intent to base the government on a family structure. That is also why non landowners were also prevented from voting

Answer 6

There were disputes on this. Some wanted to have emancipation and to abolish slavery but realized that these goals could not all be attained at once.