Windows and Doors as Gateways to Freedom or Anarchy
The repeated motifs of windows and doors are present on many women’s suffrage postcards, and were used as a background for suffrage activity to promote or obstruct a woman’s right to vote. Physically, windows and doors act as liaisons between the private and the public spheres, and can indicate the influence of women’s suffrage both inside the home and outside it. Symbolically, windows and doors carry various meanings within the context of the suffrage movement. For example, windows can represent domesticity. From inside the home, watching the world through a window conjures melancholy images of what could be. The windows and doors separate women from society and confine them to the home with wifely duties and obligation to homemaking.
Suffragettes may have manipulated these motifs, using them instead as a tool for restlessness. Scenes of opening or breaking window glass can symbolically represent progress towards leaving the home to participate in public voting. Similarly, open doors can represent pathways towards opportunities versus closed doors that represent obstructions. The recurring use of window and door imagery on postcards was very effective in support of pro- or anti-suffrage messages, and opened the door for change.
Rachael Avidor, curator
Not in These Trousers!
In this image, a woman is being denied the opportunity to receive an education at the doorstop of an academic institution. The door appears open, exclusive to women, yet is blocked for her since she is wearing pants. It is shown that her pathway to academic enrichment is impeded by her feminist ideals.
Results of the Suffrage Victory
This anti-suffragist image shows how opening the door to suffrage infringed upon home life, emasculating the man
of the house and granting domestic dominance to the woman.
The New Woman
This anti-suffrage image reveals the woman of the house closing her door, perhaps as to reinforce the permanence of suffrage on her household. The man of the house appears very unhappy, carrying the emasculate responsibility of child-rearing.
What are the wild wives saying
This image illustrates the perspective of a man on women's suffrage. It is insinuated that women’s suffrage brings chaos to government and democracy, as the windows belong to the Town Hall.
How Did You Manage It?
Although ambiguous, this anti-suffrage postcard shows two
women separated by glass. They are shown as masculine and stripped of their conventional, feminine beauty and youth. The woman on the left sees her bearded reflection in the glass in front of her, using the window as a metaphor for how women are masculinized once inside the home or a private setting.
Womens Rights
The two women leaning against an open window signify their victory in claiming the women’s right to vote. They’re symbolically and literally yielding the path for other women to follow.