Quidditch Through the Ages

[Amy Z]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., Catlady <catlady at w...> wrote:
> In 1269, Chief of the Wizards' Council Barberus Bragge (sounds like 
a
> Slytherin name to me) fined Modesty Rabnott ten Galleons (allegedly
> equivalent to some 6666 Galleons today, which is allegedly worth 
some
> $33000 today) for rescuing the poor Golden Sniglet birdie from a
> Quidditch game. In her letter to her  sister Prudence, Modesty 
wrote:
> "Chief Bragge would have lost my vote if I'd had one." Someone 
suggested
> that this indicates that females didn't have the vote in 1269, 
altho'
> Elfrida Clagg (apparently female from the name) was Chief of the
> Wizards' Council in 'the middle of the next century'. I propose that
> there wasn't a gender distinction in voting, but there was a 
property
> requirement, and Modesty didn't have enough property/wealth to be a
> voter. There is a long history of property requirements for voting.

Possible.  Or maybe it goes by degree of magical ability?  Makes as 
much sense as only letting property owners vote . . . yeesh, by that 
standard I still wouldn't be able to vote.

Also, in the US there were women in Congress (well, =A= woman) before 
women were given the vote nationally, since it was a state-by-state 
thing up to that point and in Wyoming, women had the vote and the 
voters sent a woman to Congress.  So maybe Modesty was in a place 
where women didn't have the vote.  Then, too, women can be elected 
even if they can't vote.  Or maybe wizarding society, once it allowed 
women to vote, zoomed up to full equality much faster than Muggles 
have done.

This seems kind of on-topic . . . are we being bad?  <g>

Amy Z