"It would be absurd to suggest that womenβs votes will be taken away or that this would solve the political problems that vex us. While I donβt think any class of people should be disenfranchised, I have little hope that voting will make things better."
Nevertheless it should be possible to discuss the results of giving women the right to vote. The main difference from state of affairs before that presumably being that people got to vote on things they did not have direct stakes in.
Or to give a modern example: afaik more women are opposed to abortion than men, so giving women the right the vote makes it less likely that abortion is legalized. At least some people would consider that a negative outcome.
"Entirely Wrong" - are you looking at the same chart? According to the chart, most of the time the "entirely illegal" numbers are higher for women than for men. And that is just one poll. A single Google search also produces results like this, which claims much larger differences: https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-lay-scientist/2014/a...
"Other polls have appeared since that article, and they show the same thing. A 2013 YouGov poll on behalf of the University of Lancaster found 26% of men supporting a reduction or ban, versus 43% of women."
According to the article I linked in a Gallup poll earlier in 2021, 81% of women support abortion (36% under all conditions, 45% under some) and 79% of men support abortion (29% under all conditions, 50% under some). 52% of women consider themselves pro-life and 5% are unsure. 45% of men consider themselves pro-life and 5% are unsure.
You linked to an article from 2014 about surveys from 2011.
The numbers from the Guardian article are drastically different from the ones by Gallup, and even Gallup has women in the "lead" for most years. Mostly the very recent years in Gallup have slightly less women than men saying it should be completely illegal. So I don't think the Gallup source settles it.
"It would be absurd to suggest that womenβs votes will be taken away or that this would solve the political problems that vex us. While I donβt think any class of people should be disenfranchised, I have little hope that voting will make things better."
Nevertheless it should be possible to discuss the results of giving women the right to vote. The main difference from state of affairs before that presumably being that people got to vote on things they did not have direct stakes in.
Or to give a modern example: afaik more women are opposed to abortion than men, so giving women the right the vote makes it less likely that abortion is legalized. At least some people would consider that a negative outcome.