Votes & Petticoats

This postcard has an overall anti-suffrage sentiment, downplaying the legitimacy of the suffragist cause by depicting a little girl putting on pants, almost as a last resort, to join the suffragettes simply because she can’t find a boyfriend. The dead cat, the pants, the watchful dog, and the disembodied doll all play into the motifs and beliefs of anti-suffragists, illustrating that a suffragette is defeminized and unappealing to men.

The logo next to the dog’s front leg in this English postcard is the symbol for the Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League in the United Kingdom. The dog represents masculinity and combined with the logo and seemingly incredulous message under its paws sends a clear anti-suffrage message.

This postcard is part of a series by the “Neutral” Comic, which depicts a man caught in various confrontations between two women. In this postcard, it’s important to note that a dog jumps out of the way of the man, perhaps giving the connotation that the man is losing his masculine qualities even if he is neutral in the fight between the pro- and anti-suffragists. 

The overall message of this postcard seems to be anti-suffrage. The owl, typically associated with wisdom, is making a condescending comment about the frilly-dressed, clucking hens below who are on a women's march. Additionally, the crow in the corner, usually seen as a harbinger of death and bad luck, seems to be mocking the leading hen as if to say her cause is already doomed. 

This postcard is part of the “Sha’n’t tickle ‘er” series. While it plays upon the stereotype of the "bossy" mother-in-law, and alternate interpretation can be made. Perhaps the card can also be read as a way to reclaim the image of a hen from a silly, clucking animal to a no-nonsense, strong maternal figure that is ready to move in and help her children with the suffragette cause.

As public awareness grew about police brutality towards suffragettes (suffer yets), women (symbolized here by the cat) began to be shown in a more favorable, if somewhat victimized, light. Some women resisted unfair and inhumane imprisonment by going on hunger strikes, but were force fed with steel devices causing physical damage and sometimes death.

A common concern for anti-suffragists was that giving women the vote would mean they would stop caring for their home and children, and leave the job to their husbands. In this postcard, a note on the floor reads that the man’s wife, Alice, has gone to an important committee meaning. The man is shown struggling with domestic duties, even scalding the cat, whose presence symbolizes his loss of masculinity. The cat's burns represent the overall harm to the feminine presence in the house.

This photo was taken during the National Woman Suffrage Association’s Woman Suffrage Parade in 1913—the first large, organized march on Washington D.C. for political purposes. Inez Milholland, pictured here, was a suffragist and great influencer of the women’s movement, and her choice to ride astride instead of sidesaddle shows her fearlessness of going against societal norms. 

Children were represented on postcards by both pro- and anti-suffragists. In this card, the children—spelling mistakes and all—seem to represent the purity of the suffrage cause, which no man can stop. It is interesting, however, that one of the girls is riding astride a goat. This might symbolize a scapegoat bearing the sins of the entire community (or movement in this case), or the devil as often seen on Christian depictions.

This postcard seems to convey anti-suffrage sentiments. A father is shown overwhelmed with taking care of his two children, suggesting that going along or “monkeying around” with his wife’s push for women’s rights will lead to unpredictable chaos and instability at home.