The image presented here shows a disheartened man attending to domestic chores since his wife is a suffragette, portraying the core of anti-suffrage thought. Anti-suffrage was a drive to turn away from the suffrage movement and found its place in many aspects and forms during the long battle. However, anti-suffrage cards[1] depict this battle as one between men and women being anti-suffrage and pro-suffrage respectively.

Among various anti-suffrage groups, Dunston-Weiler Lithograph Company of New York is responsible for creating 12 anti-suffrage cards among the many put into circulation.[2] These cards were published in 1909, the same year Suffragettes began hunger strikes in prisons, resulting force-feeding by jailers. [3] Anti-suffragettes attempted to respond to suffragists with actions and publications. [4] Anti-suffragists reprinted testimonials and created anti-suffrage cards for distribution among the public. [5] Many of these postcards showed men tending to domestic work to show their anger and disapproval of gender role reversal. A man forced to assume domestic responsibilities since his wife as a suffragette does correctly embody the sexist position that opposed the suffrage movement. The suffragette was given an image as being controlling or attempting to dominate a household while reducing a man from his control of the house. However, these cards do not tell the whole story of the suffrage battle.[6] The comical portrayal of feminizing men only offers a short point of history for the viewer. [7]

In the United States, the woman’s vote was granted only 100 years ago, a recent triumph due to the suffrage movement. However, discussion of such a topic usually only offers a broad understanding of the movement as will be quickly discussed. The movement stemmed from the limitation placed on citizenship, desire for higher pay, and desire for a more feasible divorce due to domestic abuse.[8] Suffragettes took many stances, such as that of justice, claiming women possessed the same capabilities as men or that of claiming the moral superiority of women.[9] The passing of the Fifteenth Amendment insulted suffragettes since African American men were given the vote, attesting to suffrage racial tensions as African American women were rejected from the cause.[10] Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were responsible for founding the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869.[11] In 1890, the National Woman Suffrage Association would join with the American Suffrage Association to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890.[12] However, there is more to this suffrage movement that is left from proper discussion.

With the rise of the suffrage movement came an equal rise in anti-suffrage thought. Such thought emerged into anti-suffrage drama, echoing social media sentiment, condemning this desired political freedom in a comical manner.[13] Such plays were created by both men and women who conveyed sexist, classists, and racist depictions intended as an “amateur dramatization…for an evening’s entertainment”.[14] This New Woman, the image of a suffragist, was ridiculed and portrayed with negative images in order to portray the anti-suffrage politics of the authors.[15] Suffragist women were painted as “self-absorbed, negligent of their duties as wives and mothers, ridiculously passionate about the cause for woman’s rights, mannish in dress and manner, corrupt, and in some cases, abusive toward their husbands”.[16] These plays depicted warnings of the New Woman, role-reversal in a marriage where men struggle with domestic chores, and progressive women failing in male professions.[17] Even though there was strong opposition from women, it is important to note the support gained from men during the suffrage movement. With the success of the suffrage movement in territories west of the Mississippi River, western male settlers were hopeful for the increase of women settlers in the area.[18] The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), created by Julia Ward Howe and Lucy Stone in 1869, even included men in its leadership. [19]

However, a rise in anti-suffrage thought resulted in many young women rebelling against this New Woman and insisted on the importance of a husband’s love and domestic duties.[20] These women assumed the duties that anti-suffrage cards warned against, the masculinization of women with aggressive and unladylike behavior. [21] Alice Stone Blackwell, a suffrage leader, attested to the fact that “’ the struggle has never been a fight of woman against man” but rather between both men and women on each side of the suffrage argument.[22] A large issue was opposition from women toward the suffrage movement who formed organizations to combat suffrage and were also responsible for petitions encouraging Congress to withhold votes from women.[23] The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was founded by Josephine Dodge of New York and insisted that “women had more power to improve society without the vote than with it”.[24] The suffrage battle is falsely portrayed as a “battle of the sexes” since it was mainly between white women of the upper and middle classes, some men would simply join.[25]  Many men held the stance that political involvement would taint a woman’s moral purity.[26] However, not much is offered as to why anti-suffrage women opposed their own right to vote. Some insisted that they did not want to be forced into male politics while others insisted that they did not need the vote to have power over lawmakers.[27] In fact, many women insisted that the law did not discriminate against them and were worried that their rights, which were related to their position as a domestic woman, would be taken away. [28]

 

 

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References

Dassori, Emma. 2005. “Performing the Woman Question: The Emergence of Anti-Suffrage Drama.” ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly) 19 (4): 301. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=edsglr&AN=edsgcl.140659681&site=eds-live.

Hix, Lisa. “War on Women, Waged in Postcards: Memes From the Suffragist Era.” Collectors Weekly. Accessed February 2, 2020. https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/war-on-women-waged-in-postcards-memes-from-the-suffragist-era/.

Miller, Joe C. 2015. “Never A Fight of Woman Against Man: What Textbooks Don’t Say about Women’s Suffrage.” History Teacher 48 (3): 437–82. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=aph&AN=102820090&site=eds-live.

Pages, The Society. “Vintage Anti-Suffrage Postcards – Sociological Images.” Sociological Images Vintage AntiSuffrage Postcards Comments. Accessed April 18, 2020. https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/11/08/vintage-anti-suffrage-postcards/.

“Publicity for the Antis.” Publicity for the Antis | New York Heritage. New York Heritage . Accessed April 18, 2020. http://www.newyorkheritage.org/exhibits/recognizing-womens-right-vote/publicity-antis.

Shi, David Emory. America: a Narrative History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2019.

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[1] Lisa Hix. “War on Women, Waged in Postcards: Memes From the Suffragist Era.” Collectors Weekly. https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/war-on-women-waged-in-postcards-memes-from-the-suffragist-era/. Accessed February 2, 2020.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] “Publicity for the Antis.” Publicity for the Antis | New York Heritage. New York Heritage. http://www.newyorkheritage.org/exhibits/recognizing-womens-right-vote/publicity-antis.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Pages, The Society. “Vintage Anti-Suffrage Postcards – Sociological Images.” Sociological Images Vintage AntiSuffrage Postcards Comments. https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/11/08/vintage-anti-suffrage-postcards/.

[8] David Emory Shi. America: a Narrative History, ( New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2019), 858.

[9] Ibid., 859.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid., 858.

[12] Ibid., 859.

[13] Emma Dassori. “Performing the Woman Question: The Emergence of Anti-Suffrage Drama.” ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly) 19 (4) (2005): 301.

[14] Ibid., 302.

[15] Ibid., 305.

[16] Emma Dassori. “Performing the Woman Question: The Emergence of Anti-Suffrage Drama.” ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly) 19 (4) (2005): 305.

[17] Ibid., 306.

[18] David Emory Shi. America: a Narrative History, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2019), 859.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Emma Dassori. “Performing the Woman Question: The Emergence of Anti-Suffrage Drama.” ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly) 19 (4) (2005): 305.

[21] Pages, The Society. “Vintage Anti-Suffrage Postcards – Sociological Images.” Sociological Images Vintage AntiSuffrage Postcards Comments. https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/11/08/vintage-anti-suffrage-postcards/.

[22]Joe C. Miller. “Never A Fight of Woman Against Man: What Textbooks Don’t Say about Women’s Suffrage.” History Teacher 48 (3) (2015.): 437.

[23] Ibid., 438-39.

[24] Ibid., 440.

[25] Ibid., 441.

[26]David Emory Shi. America: a Narrative History, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2019), 859.

[27]Joe C. Miller. “Never A Fight of Woman Against Man: What Textbooks Don’t Say about Women’s Suffrage.” History Teacher 48 (3) (2015.): 451.

[28] Ibid., 467.