Opposing votes for women may seem surprising today, but anti-suffrage views dominated among men and women through the early twentieth century. Suffragists had national organizations since 1869, but anti-suffragists did not found their own group until 1911. Show
Before organizing, suffrage opponents bonded without an official institution. Artists created political cartoons that mocked suffragists. Religious leaders spoke out against women’s political activism from the pulpit. Articles attacked women who took part in public life. Even without a coordinating institution, opposition to suffrage remained popular. In the 1860s, opponents of woman suffrage began to organize locally. Massachusetts was home to leading suffrage advocates, and it was also one of the first states with an organized anti-suffrage group. In the 1880s, anti-suffrage activists joined together and eventually became known as the Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women. In 1911, Josephine Dodge, who also led a movement to establish day care centers to help working mothers, founded the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS). The NAOWS was most popular in northeastern cities. Like pro-suffrage groups, NAOWS distributed publications and organized events and state campaigns. Just like men and women supported votes for women, men and women organized against suffrage as well. Anti-suffragists argued that most women did not want the vote. Because they took care of the home and children, they said women did not have time to vote or stay updated on politics. Some argued women lacked the expertise or mental capacity to offer a useful opinion about political issues. Others asserted that women’s votes would simply double the electorate; voting would cost more without adding any new value. By Allison Lange, Ph.D. Documents, Objects, and Images
 Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, 1873 The MVLA was at the forefront of an explosion of all-female organizations in the 19th century. Women’s groups promoting issues such as abolition, temperance, child welfare, and historic preservation gave members an intellectual outlet, leadership experience, and increasingly public roles in society. Yet these women lacked one powerful tool—the right to vote. Gaining access to the ballot box presented new obstacles, as women aimed to enter a sphere dominated entirely by men. It would take decades for suffrage activists to achieve their goal.
-19TH AMENDMENT TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTIONThe fight for women’s suffrage began quietly in the 1840s and expanded after the Civil War, with the formation of several national organizations. In the early 20th century, a new generation of activists focused on lobbying Congress and President Woodrow Wilson for a national suffrage amendment. Attention-grabbing protests, parades, and civil disobedience thrust the suffrage debate into the mainstream. In 1919, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed a suffrage amendment. After ratification by 36 of the nation’s 48 states, the 19th Amendment became law on August 26, 1920, when the Tennessee legislature ratified the measure by just one vote. Why did some women oppose suffrage?Not all women supported women's suffrage. According to the ca. 1910 pamphlet below from the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage there were a number of anti-suffrage arguments. Their reasons included: women did not want to vote, women would vote the same as their husbands, and in some states where women outnumbered men the government would be under "petticoat rule". Click below to enlarge the images. Nellie M. Quander (1880–1961) was the great-great-granddaughter of Nancy Quander, an enslaved woman freed by George Washington’s will. Shortly after graduating from Howard University in 1912, Quander spearheaded the incorporation of Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), the oldest black sorority in
the country. In February 1913, Quander wrote to suffrage organizer Alice Paul expressing interest in participating in the first suffrage march on Washington, D.C., but only if she and her sorority sisters did not “meet with discrimination on account of race.” At the parade, Paul insisted that African American women walk at the back. It is unclear how many AKA members chose to march under those circumstances. Women Organizing for Change
–Ann Pamela Cunningham, December 9, 1859How did female activists advance their causes without political power?
"From force of habit, she will clean this up.” Cartoon from Judge Magazine, February 8, 1913. Library of Congress. The Power of FemininityNineteenth-century norms categorized women as more pious, pure, and moral than men. Channeling this rhetoric, the MVLA argued that women were uniquely suited to preserve the domestic space of Washington’s home as a sanctuary from politics and corruption. Many suffragists maintained that female voters would improve society, especially in areas such as corruption, alcoholism, gambling, and child labor.
Equal Suffrage League of Richmond, Virginia, May 1915. Virginia Museum of History and Culture (2002.225.2) Grassroots Organizing
–The Mount Vernon Record, August 1859The MVLA raised $200,000 to purchase Mount Vernon through a nationwide fundraising campaign. Each Vice Regent (board member) raised funds in her state, assisted by “Lady Managers” who collected donations at the local level. National suffrage organizations similarly relied on state and local chapters to recruit new members and support annual conventions. Local suffrage associations flourished in the North, Midwest, and West, though conservative politics stalled efforts in the South.
Edward Everett, Mount Vernon Ladies' Association Enlisting Male AlliesIn the 19th century, many considered it scandalous for women to speak publicly to mixed-gender audiences. The MVLA partnered with prominent male orators to give speeches on their behalf. Former U.S. Senator Edward Everett delivered more than 100 ticketed lectures on George Washington, raising nearly $70,000 for the purchase of Mount Vernon. Suffrage leaders such as Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony dared to deliver lectures themselves. Men provided political and financial support. Henry Browne Blackwell, husband of Lucy Stone, campaigned widely for suffrage alongside his wife and helped finance a pro-suffrage newspaper. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass was an outspoken suffrage advocate who attended the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention. Frederick Douglass, Library of Congress
Mount Vernon Record, Vol 2, No 2, August 1859, Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. Spreading the WordFrom 1858 to 1860, the MVLA’s monthly newsletter updated supporters on fundraising efforts. Subscriptions helped fund the purchase of Mount Vernon. The Suffrage Movement’s longest-running suffrage periodical was published weekly from 1870 to 1931 under several titles. This newspaper featured speeches, debates, notes from conventions, poetry, and short stories. Suffragists distribute the Woman’s Journal in 1913. Library of CongressPreservation Before PoliticsAs a non-partisan organization, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association never took an official stance on women’s suffrage. Outside their roles in the MVLA, some Vice Regents expressed strong opinions. "Mind has no sex" –Ann Pamela Cunningham, 1846 MVLA founder Ann Pamela Cunningham
believed in women’s intellectual equality with men. Educated at an elite girls’ boarding school in South Carolina, Cunningham chafed at the expectation that she simply marry and bear children. She devoted her energy to saving Mount Vernon. A prominent philanthropist and reformer, Phoebe Apperson Hearst made headlines in 1911 when she declared her support for a women’s suffrage amendment in California. Hearst later
served as vice-chairwoman of the National Woman’s Party and encouraged her son, newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, to use his publications to promote suffrage. Described in her obituary as an “ardent anti-suffragist,” Annie Burr Jennings chaired the Fairfield chapter of the Connecticut Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, hosting meetings
and debates over suffrage at her 30-room estate, “Sunnieholme.” A statewide referendum in 1893 secured voting rights for women in Colorado. Five years later, Alice Hale Hill joined the state’s governor, senators, and congressmen in signing a public letter aimed at eastern states proclaiming “the value of equal suffrage.” The letter noted that women’s votes were more “conscientious” than men’s and would help establish a “better order.” Many MVLA board members supported suffrage despite conservative backgrounds. Following Mrs. Maxey’s death, a fellow Vice Regent remarked, “Schooled in the traditions of the South, she was also a forceful part of a modern world, believing in Women’s Suffrage, and later working ardently in that cause.” Charlotte Woodbury’s fellow MVLA board members recalled that she was “an early advocate of women’s suffrage” who “helped to organize the League of Women Voters in New
Hampshire.” Woodbury was also deeply involved in public kindergarten, the Y.W.C.A., Red Cross, and Children’s Aid Society. George Washington and the Founders in Suffrage-Era ImagerySuffrage-era cartoons, caricatures, and illustrations often invoked George Washington and the nation’s founding—but to different ends.
Click on the images below to see examples. George Washington and the Founders inSuffrage-Era ImagerySuffrage-era cartoons, caricatures, and illustrations often invoked George Washington and the nation’s founding—but to different ends.
Click on the images below to see examples.
This cover illustration explicitly connects the suffrage movement to the American Revolution. The caption reads, “As her father fought so will she.” This political cartoon reworks “The Apotheosis of Washington” fresco in the U.S. Capitol rotunda to mock suffrage leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and… As the shadowy figure of Thomas Jefferson looks on, a suffragist adds “and women” to the Declaration of Independence’s famous assertion that “all… In February 1913, a group of women set out on a “suffrage hike” from Newark, New Jersey, to Washington, D.C., where suffragists protested Woodrow Wilson’s… An encounter with three protesting suffragists leads a concerned George Washington to wonder, “Did I save my country for this”? Anti-suffragists commonly… Reimagining John Trumbull’s famous painting, this cartoon employs common caricatures to depict suffragists as dour, masculine, and overbearing. Their… Mount Vernon Ladies' AssociationThe strong and independent members of the MVLA were divided on the issue of women's suffrage. Learn More Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, 1884 The content on this page was adapted from Fighting For Their Cause: Women’s Activism, from Mount Vernon to Suffrage, a temporary exhibition in 2020 by George Washington's Mount Vernon. What did anti suffragists say?Just like men and women supported votes for women, men and women organized against suffrage as well. Anti-suffragists argued that most women did not want the vote. Because they took care of the home and children, they said women did not have time to vote or stay updated on politics.
Why did anti suffragists oppose Woman Suffrage quizlet?Anti suffrage movement: Opposed or went against the suffrage movement in that they believed granting women voting rights would lead to a moral decline with the neglect of children and an increase in divorce. This resistance came from mostly the South and Eastern regions of the U.S. 1.
What did the anti suffragists do?Anti-suffragism was a largely Classical Conservative movement that sought to keep the status quo for women and which opposed the idea of giving women equal suffrage rights. It was closely associated with "domestic feminism," the belief that women had the right to complete freedom within the home.
What did anti suffragists fear?One of the biggest obstacles for woman suffragists was a general fear of gender inversion. The predominant anti-suffrage fear throughout the nineteenth century was that the female sex would transform into a masculine gender if women were granted the vote.
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What did the term petticoat rule mean when it was used by anti suffragists in the early 20th century?
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