The fight for women’s suffrage was an ongoing struggle throughout American history and came after many years of effort by many different people. The right to vote did not come easy for American women, and this picture illustrates the continual opposition that women faced. The Nineteenth Amendment did not get approved until 1919, even though efforts began many decades before this time[1]. David E. Shi states, “Women’s suffrage was the culmination of generations of activism and was the climactic achievement of the Progressive Era”[2]. The passing of this amendment was especially difficult since the idea faced much opposition, as clearly depicted in this image. In this image, women’s suffrage is being personified as an individual attempting to move forward, and both men and women are trying to prevent any sort of advancement. The phrase at the bottom “All together now! Stop her!” emphasizes the large backing that was against the idea of women voting[3]. In the image the people appear miniature compared to the leg, and do not seem to be able to stop the leg from moving forward. This image accurately describes the historical context of what was going on in the early 1900s. While many people opposed the idea of women’s suffrage and tried to stop the Nineteenth Amendment from being passed, it was not enough to overpower the efforts being made in support of women’s suffrage.
As stated by William L. O’Neill, “What all feminists had in common in 1920 was the fact that it had taken them 72 years to win the vote”[4]. Although many feminists differed in their approaches to trying to gain the right to vote, they all were faced with much resistance and discrimination along the way. There were a few various reasons as to why people did not want to women to start voting, one of the main reasons being that people believed women should be domesticated and focus on their sphere of the home, not politics. Many people within society believed a woman’s place was inside the home, and that women should not branch out into other aspects of society[5]. Many people, mostly men, feared that families would suffer if women started to get more rights, and this would contribute to the downfall of society. Most of the opposition came from men, who did not want women to take away their power and authority in society, but some women also opposed the women’s suffrage movement. Most men deemed women as inferior during this time, and did not see any reason to give up their power and political influence to women. On the other hand, while it may be surprising that some women opposed having the right to vote, Ellen DuBois provides some of the reasoning for why this was the case. DuBois states, “It was not that nineteenth-century women were content, or had no grievances, but that they understood their grievances in the context of the private sphere. The lives of most nineteenth-century women were overwhelmingly limited to the private realities of wifehood and motherhood, and they experienced their discontent in the context of those relations”[6]. Many women were confined to their sphere of the home and did not experience issues that would be resolved by the right to vote. Wyoming was the first state to allow women the right to vote, as Western states were the first to be acclimated with the idea of women’s suffrage. This was due to a greater sense of equality in the West, as well as an effort to try and invite more women to move out West and start new lives[7].All in all, the struggle for women’s suffrage was a major theme in American history during this time period.
[1]David E. Shi America: A Narrative History (Brief Twelfth Edition) (Vol. Volume 2). 12th ed. W.W. Norton and Company, 2022, 919.
[2]Ibid., 920.
[3]Udo J. Keppler, Artist. “All together now! Stop her!” / Keppler., 1914. New York: Published by Puck Publishing Corporation, 295-309 Lafayette Street, May 2. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2011649798/.
[4] William L. O’Neill “The Fight for Suffrage.” The Wilson Quarterly (1976-) 10, no. 4 (1986), 99.
[5] Eileen L. McDonagh, and H. Douglas Price. “Woman Suffrage in the Progressive Era: Patterns of Opposition and Support in Referenda Voting, 1910-1918.” The American Political Science Review 79, no. 2 (1985),420.
[6]Ellen DuBois. “The Radicalism of the Woman Suffrage Movement: Notes toward the Reconstruction of Nineteenth-Century Feminism.” Feminist Studies 3, no. 1/2 (1975), 68.
[7] David E. Shi America: A Narrative History (Brief Twelfth Edition) (Vol. Volume 2). 12th ed. W.W. Norton and Company, 2022, 849.