This week in English 372, we looked
at some pieces from the 19th century and early 20th century
that related to women’s suffrage and women’s rights. What we found was both
interesting and shocking. I hadn’t realized before, but it took almost a
century for activists for women’s rights to win the battle that led to the 19th
Amendment of the Constitution to be put in place. And on Election Day in 1920,
when millions of women voted for the first time ever, it changed the world. But
it was a long time coming.
Some of the most disturbing things I
have seen and read were the political cartoons that were used during the 19th
century to dissuade people from allowing women to vote. One, shown below, was a
picture of a woman’s head and depicting what is inside it, merely included
things like clothing, chocolate, children, men, and very little of anything
that would prove women have any intellectual abilities outside of being a
housewife. As a woman, it is degrading to see. And the very saddest part of all
is that some people still feel that way today. Just like many people are still
racist, and anti-homosexual, and biased towards their own religions. Even
though we have made large strides in equality, we are still fairly far from it.
In one article written by a female
member of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage in the late 1800s
wrote of reasons why women should not have the rights that they desire and one
of them included, “Because the woman suffrage movement is a backward step in
the progress of civilization, in that it seeks to efface natural
differentiation of function, and to produce identity, instead of division of
labor.” And she also said, “Because it is our fathers, brothers, husbands, and
sons who represent us at the ballot box. Our fathers and our brothers love us;
our husbands are our choice, and one with us; our sons are what WE MAKE THEM.
We are content that they represent US in the corn-field, on the battle-field,
and at the ballet-box”. And all of this and more was written by a woman. It was
common for some women to believe this side of it, to listen to their husbands
and agree with them, and to look down upon other women for wanting to have
rights. And it still happens today. It seems more often today that you see men
banding together and if not banding together, at the very least not trying to
sabotage each other. Where we see women are all about cat-fights and
slut-shaming each other for trying to be independent of the norm. You see it
made fun of in social media all the time today. Women shame each other for
wanting to be only friends with men because other women are mean to them. But
it is so true. And so sad. Women should be all banding together and helping one
another but so much of the time pettiness and jealousy gets in the way of that.
But it wasn’t all bad back in the 19th
century and early 20th century. Not only were wealthy white women
supporters of women’s rights, men like Frederick Douglass, a former slave and a
leader of an abolition movement, was on board with women’s right to vote. And
not just white women, but black women as well actively supported the movement,
like Ida B. Wells-Barnett (known for her leading against lynching). Susan B.
Anthony was a huge leader in getting women the right to vote. When she
registered to vote in 1872 she was fined by the Congress of the United
States a hundred dollars. And we know it has
gotten better. Rights have been given. It has taken a lot of time, but women
finally were justly given the right to vote in 1920, although it wasn’t until
the 1960s when everyone, including black women, was given the rights to vote. It
is still an ongoing battle of equality for women and men as it is with race and
sex and religion among so many other things but we are slowly progressing
forward.
http://www.radford.edu/rbarris/Women%20and%20art/amerwom05/suffrageart.html
(From New York, 1912)
(New York, 1894)
