When Women Vote Front
1 media/whenwomenvote_thumb.jpg 2021-04-26T07:13:31-07:00 Abbi Riedmaier 21c0ac926347bc6647b5496dd0724da4eafb058b 38661 2 Photo of a woman smoking a cigar while her husband takes care of the child and knits. A sign reads: "Revised marriage rules. Husbands working hours 3 a.m. to 12 p.m.. Husbands to provide themselves with new trousers out of their wives' old skirts" plain 2021-04-29T19:45:42-07:00 Abbi Riedmaier 21c0ac926347bc6647b5496dd0724da4eafb058bThis page is referenced by:
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2021-04-19T11:29:26-07:00
When Women Vote (c.1908)
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Anti-Suffragette Postcard Published by Mitchell and Watkins
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2021-04-29T15:02:45-07:00
When Women Vote (c.1908)
Published by Mitchell and Watkins
The Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Part of the Women's Suffrage Collection
SPEC.RARE.CMS.0287
If My Wife is A Suffragette, I Should Worry (c.1913)
Published by Barton & Spooner Co.
The Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Part of the Women's Suffrage Collection
SPEC.RARE.CMS.0287
At the height of the suffrage movement, postcards circled the nation in support of, and against, extending to women the right to vote. This postcard shows a wife reading a sports newspaper, smoking a cigar, drinking from a wine bottle while her husband takes care of their child and knits. The text on the righthand side implies these two have switched household roles, even down to their clothes. This movement, despite only being about voting equality, was seen as an attack on the traditions of marriage in the eyes of the opponents to suffrage. In this case, those opponents were husbands. These traditional roles were based on a woman’s dependence on a man, her loss of agency after the wedding. The inscription on the backside addressed to a married couple reads “I hope you have not changed places,” insinuating that these flipped roles are something to be ashamed of. This misconception of women's suffrage was a prominent one, and can also be seen in other postcards such as If My Wife is a Suffragette, I Should Worry, which also features a husband taking on traditional 'wife' roles. This second postcard, addressed to a woman in Ohio, implies a husband would become weak and dependent, much like the 'traditional' role of a wife.
