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
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At the height of the women's rights movement, post-cards circled the nation in support, and against, the suffrage movement. This postcard shows a wife reading a sports newspaper, smoking a cigar, drinking from a port 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. The suffragette movement, despite only being about women’s equal rights, was seen as an attack on the traditions of marriage in the eyes of the anti-suffrages, and in this case, husbands. These traditional roles were based on a woman’s dependence of a man, becoming his property after the wedding. The inscription on the backside reads “I hope you have not changed places,” insinuating 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.