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Women's Suffrage Broadsides

In early twentieth century fliers and broadsides, a group of suffragists declared, “Women are, by nature and training, housekeepers. Let them have a hand in the city’s housekeeping” (GLC 08964). This statement showcases one of the propaganda tactics used during the long and complex history of the woman suffrage movement. For roughly seventy years, the suffrage movement in America had stalled, transformed, and flourished through various manifestations. Early twentieth century suffragists believed that appealing to traditional ideas of female domesticity offered their best chance to obtain the vote [1]. Instead of arguing that politics could transform the housewife, suffragists promised that women’s votes could create positive change in policy. They suggested that the neighborhood, state, and nation needed a thorough housecleaning. With a broom in one hand and ballot in the other, women were poised for the job.

These broadsides indicate that women’s suffrage had a concrete basis in nineteenth century ideas regarding domesticity. Periodicals and literature intended for middle-class women (Godey’s Lady’s Book, the Ladies Magazine, Mother’s Book, Harper’s Magazine) conveyed notions of the traditionally male public and traditionally female private domains [2]. Moreover, these publications emphasized women’s duty to maintain the home’s purity. Suffragists stressed similar ideals in order to illustrate that with the vote, women could exercise their unique abilities to eradicate the ills of urban society:

[A mother] can clean her own rooms, BUT if the neighbors are allowed to live in filth, she cannot keep her rooms from being filled with bad air and smells, or from being infested with vermin.
She can cook her food well, BUT if dealers are permitted to sell poor food, unclean milk or stale eggs, she cannot make the food wholesome for her children.
She can take every care to avoid fire, BUT if the house has been badly built, if the fire-escapes are insufficient... she cannot guard her children from the horrors of being maimed or killed by fire.
She can open her windows to give her children the air that we are told is so necessary, BUT if the air is laden with infection, with tuberculosis and other contagious diseases, she cannot protect her children from this danger.
MEN are responsible for the conditions under which the children live, but we hold WOMEN responsible for the results of those conditions. (GLC 08964)

By using such powerful expressions, suffragists highlighted the importance that society put on the health and well-being of one’s family. With a multitude of threats facing society and the family, women’s ‘natural’ abilities would be indispensable at the polls. Suffragists also promoted the nineteenth century notion that women had "a firmer grip on religion and morals … [and a] stronger claim to piety and purity, and a sense of moral superiority"[3]. Directed at voting men, some of these fliers suggest that women’s moral purity could transform public behavior:

Think what happens when there are not enough schools or playgrounds. Your children go without education and play in the crowded streets.
Think what happens when dance halls and theaters are not decent, and when unlawful sale of ‘dope’ is carried on. Your boys and girls are in danger of going wrong.
Your wife's complaints to the City departments that control them do no good because she hasn't got the vote. (GLC 08962)
[Women] should vote equally with men. BECAUSE over 8,000,000 women in the United States are wage workers and their health and that of our future citizens are often endangered by evil working conditions that can only be remedied by legislation. (GLC 08963)

Additionally, suffragists used broadsides to address longstanding arguments against women obtaining the vote. To confront these arguments, they complied with the notion that the wife was, essentially, an extension of her husband. They attempted to dispel the apprehension that wives would, given the chance, vote against husbands. Husbands and wives voting in discordance implied unrest within the home, the basic building block of smooth functioning society. The New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association Broadside (GLC 08962) adroitly dealt with this fear: “And don’t forget there are more working people in this State than any other kind. When you let the women vote, you will double your power for getting what you want.” With such statements, suffragists presented each female vote as an augmentation of the male vote.

While suffrage propaganda attempted to assure men of the many ways women’s votes could be utilized, it also sought to persuade society of the benefits these votes offered the state and nation. Women had been active in abolition, moral reform, and temperance movements during the latter half of the 1800s [4]. When the Woman Suffrage Party of the City of New York declared “Women Ought to GIVE Their Help. Men Ought to HAVE Their Help. The State Ought to USE Their Help” (GLC 08963), they invited men and women to reflect on a century of women’s participation in the betterment of society. Suffragists reasoned that the women who had administered medicine and sanitation during the Civil War, initiated social programs for the poor (such as Jane Addam’s Hull House), and organized prison reform, would also provide positive influence at the polls. Conversely, they argued that if women were not allowed to vote, their “higher sense of social and civic responsibility” would deteriorate (GLC 08963).

A host of events at the turn of the century contributed to the success of women’s suffrage. Spearheaded by the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), the national organization that led multiple local associations, the movement steadily expanded in the early 1900s. At the urging of President Woodrow Wilson, the Senate approved a women’s suffrage amendment in 1919. After decades of combating opposition from without and apathy from within, the movement had finally achieved its goal. The broadsides below suggest that some of the traditional perceptions of women and their domestic roles helped pave women’s path to the polls.

Alyson Barrett
Manuscript Librarian

[1] Woloch, Nancy. Women and the American Experience. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000. p. 333.
[2] Many historians argue that as the industrial era progressed, an increasing number of men left home for work, while women remained at home. The home transformed into a female domain and a physical and moral haven from temptation, filth, and other ills of modern society.
[3] Woloch, 125.
[4] Woloch, 342. At the turn of the century, there was overlapping leadership between women’s reform and suffrage movements.

Item Description and Credits

GLC 08961 How to Vote for Woman Suffrage Amendment, Election Day, November 6, 1917.

GLC 08962 Plain Facts for the Working Man, circa 1910.

GLC 08963 Votes for Women! The Woman's Reason, 1915.

GLC 08964 Women in the Home, 1915.

For more information or to obtain copies, contact Ana Ramirez-Luhrs at reference@gilderlehrman.com or call (212) 787-6616 ext. 209.