Hannah

Topic Identification: Gender Roles in Women’s Suffrage Propoganda, 1900-1920

He: “But, madam, you cannot bear arms.” She: “Nor can you, sir, bear armies.”

Caption: “Arms versus the Army,” Pro-Suffrage Cartoon by Lou Rogers, n.d., Suffrage Collection, Box 2, Folder 12, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.

Classroom Discussion Questions:

1. How does this image make a case for women’s right to vote?

2. How does the baby add to this argument? Would the cartoon be able to make the same point without the baby? Is there a relationship between the baby and the soldier?

3. Does this image align with traditional gender roles and separate sphere ideology? Why or why not?

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Teacher Preparation:

This is a political cartoon by Lou Rogers (1879-1952), a female cartoonist who was a proponent of the women’s suffrage movement. Her cartoons were published in such journals as The Suffragist as well as more mainstream papers. This particular cartoon aimed to advance the women’s suffrage cause by showing that women deserved the vote because of their specificities as women. The image, paired with the caption, show that women are even more integral to the state than men: without mothers there would be no armies. It is not clear which paper this particular cartoon was published in, but the types of imagery this cartoon uses imply its desire to make suffrage palatable to a mainstream audience or to tentative suffrage advocates who did not want to be seen as unsexed by their support. Through this image, women could show that suffrage was compatible with traditional female roles. This cartoon was created at a moment where many women, artists or otherwise, began (to use Alice Sheppard’s term) “cartooning” for suffrage. These cartoons made the argument for women’s right to vote in many different ways, representing women as mothers, wives, independent women, activists, etc. The focus on the mother in this cartoon can illuminate much about the gender roles in place in the early 20th century as well as how these roles affected the imagery of the women’s suffrage movement.

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After examining this cartoon, how do the two following newspaper clippings both reinforce and complicate what we have learned?

“Picket Heroines Glory in Being Called 'Jailbirds'," Newspaper clipping, n.d., Suffrage Collection, Box 2: Folder 10, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.

 

“Suffragists Opposed to Pickets Help Nation in War Work," Newspaper clipping, The New York Times Magazine, 19 Aug. 1917, Suffrage Collection, Box 2:Folder 10, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.


Classroom Discussion Questions:
1. Do these two newspaper clippings change how we read the cartoon?
2. Does the idea of being a ‘Jailbird’ or taking part in a picket align with the image of the potential woman voter we saw in the first cartoon?
3. What work does the second clipping do to counteract the image put forth in the second? Is the image of the woman important to the article’s argument?
4. Do you think that the First World War had an impact on the way that suffragists portrayed themselves and asked for the vote?
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Teacher Preparation:
Starting in early 1917, certain suffragists got tired of the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s tactic of “asking nicely” for suffrage through petitions or other tactics that were in alignment with feminine gender roles. Alice Paul (1885-1977) began, with National Woman’s Party (NWP) members, to picket almost continually for a national suffrage amendment in front of the White House. At first they were ignored, but with the U.S.’s entry into WWI in early April, public opinion began to turn against them. The country was expected to unify in the patriotic war effort, but Paul’s “silent sentinels” continued to confront president Wilson with banners saying such things as “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?” Starting in June, the women started getting arrested for “obstructing traffic” and, as the protests continued, the jail sentences got longer and longer. In the first headline, women who were arrested in this way glory in being called “jailbirds,” showing their embrace of a more radical stance that went against what was expected of a woman, especially during wartime. The second article shows a more conservative suffragist attitude that likely saw the NWP protests as a detriment to the cause. The headline seems to document an attempt to show that not all suffragists were rowdy jailbirds and that many remained dutifully feminine and patriotic. Together, these two headlines show the different and conflicting ways that gender was mobilized by supporters of suffrage. From these sources, it is impossible to say whether one tactic was more successful than the other, but through a combination of different tactics, the 19th amendment, granting women’s suffrage, was ratified shortly after the war ended, in mid-1920.

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Teaching Aids: Other resources pertaining to this topic, including both pro- and anti-suffrage cartoons from a number of viewpoints, exist in the Suffrage Collection. For more pro-suffrage cartoons, see Box 2: Folder 12-13.  For more information on the white house pickets, see Box 2: Folder 10.

 

Secondary Sources:

1. Cooney, Robert. Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Women Suffrage Movement. Santa Cruz: American Graphic Press, 2005.

This book gives a good general overview of the fight for the vote in America. Of special interest to understanding this item are the sections exploring the years 1910-1920.

2. Adams, Katherine H. Alice Paul and the American Suffrage Campaign. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008.

This book details Alice Paul’s campaign for women’s suffrage through non-violent protest.

3. Sheppard, Alice. Cartooning for Suffrage. University of New Mexico Press, 1994.

This book deals specifically with the phenomenon of women taking up pen and paper to create cartoons in favor of suffrage and in this way helps to situates this Lou Rogers cartoon within a specific moment and movement of female cartoonists.