<P> Immediately following the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, many legislators feared a powerful women's bloc would emerge as a result of female enfranchisement . The Sheppard - Towner Act of 1921, which expanded maternity care during the 1920s, was one of the first laws passed appealing to the female vote . </P> <P> A paper by John Lott and Lawrence W. Kenny, published by the Journal of Political Economy, found that women generally voted along more liberal political philosophies than men . The paper concluded that women's voting appeared to be more risk - averse than men and favored candidates or policies that supported wealth transfer, social insurance, progressive taxation, and larger government . </P> <P> A paper found that "exposure to women's political empowerment during childhood leads to large increases in educational attainment for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, in particular blacks and Southern whites . We also find improvements in employment outcomes among this group ." </P>

Who proposed that the women's movement focused on gaining the right to vote