Many people (including even some MRAs) seem under the delusion that universal male suffrage has existed for eternity. That's nonsense:

  1. A careful reading of the second and third columns of this table (universal male vs universal female suffrage) shows the dates often quite close:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_suffrage#Dates_by_country

  2. Britain did not allow universal male suffrage until 1918, a sop to the millions of men dead or mutilated in war. In contrast, universal female suffrage, granted barely 10 years later, took two female deaths (Emily Davison, Mary Clarke). That's quite some ratio - one million to two.

  3. The USA did not establish universal male suffrage immediately; property requirements were common into the 1850's. And thereafter, poll taxes prevented universal suffrage (e.g., against Irish in Massachusetts). In the same pattern as elsewhere, Irish were not considered worthy of the vote until they had died in war (the US Civil War) by the thousands.

  4. The first major extension of suffrage in much of Western Europe took ~25,000 (mostly male?) deaths in the Revolutions of 1848. That is, to obtain suffrage, men sacrificed lives; women sacrificed speeches.

  5. Once granted, male suffrage was often rolled back, the most obvious example being France; though a pioneer in 1792, it regressed; universal male suffrage did not become stable until 1875.

As Straughan points out frequently (with perhaps only slight variation from my own numbers):
* Men have not had the vote for > 96% of human history.
* The difference between the dates of universal male and universal female suffrage, is ~2% of human history.

Also omitted from most discussion of suffrage:
* Before female suffrage, the males were expected to dutifully represent the views of wives; letters between US founders and their spouses emphasise this.
* Female anti-suffrage groups were commonplace; the women did not want to have to be conscripted, lose limbs and lives in the mines, nor generally assume male responsibilities. Suffrage became popular among women only once it became clear they'd not have male responsibilities.

One could also argue that, once women obtained the privileges of citizenship (the vote) without the responsibilities, the concomitant electoral power accelerated misandrist government until the recent achievement of full governance feminism.