What were the arguments against womens suffrage at the time?
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For Show Against Men look at material posted in the window of the National Anti-Suffrage Association headquarters. (Harris & Ewing/Library of Congress) Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience. By Samantha Schmidt  Suffragists were forced to counter these arguments by making the case that yes, “women will still do everything that they’re supposed to do in the women’s sphere, but also vote,” Jabour said. “I think we’re still dealing with exactly these messages,” said Allison Lange, an associate professor of history at the Wentworth Institute of Technology. “Even a century later, women’s rights activists, female leaders are still faced with exactly the same criticism.” But understanding their arguments requires understanding who these women were. Since many in the anti-suffrage movement were ideologically opposed to women being public figures, they often identified themselves only using their husbands’ names or issuing statements on behalf of an organization, rather than an individual, Jabour said. The anti-suffragist women generally came from elite, White families on the East Coast, and tended to be married to, or related to, men in politics or law. But they were also often influential leaders in social activism and philanthropy. In many ways, anti-suffragist women were similar in status to suffragist leaders, Goodier said. “They would move in a lot of the same circles.” One of the most famous anti-suffragists, Annie Nathan Meyer, was a writer, philanthropist and founder of New York City’s first liberal arts college for women, Barnard College. Her sister, Maud Nathan, publicly supported women’s suffrage. Ida Tarbell, who is credited with pioneering what is today known as investigative journalism, publicly opposed women’s suffrage, arguing that a woman’s place is in the home and not in the man’s world — even though her groundbreaking career was an exception to that rule. One of the most important anti-suffragist activists was Josephine Jewell Dodge, a founder and president of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. She came from a wealthy and influential New England family; her father, Marshall Jewell, served as a governor of Connecticut and U.S. postmaster general. Dodge was also an early leader in the movement to establish day-care centers for working and immigrant mothers in New York City. But she considered suffrage unnecessary, given that state legislatures had already passed laws protecting certain civil rights for women. “The suffrage disturbance is, in plain words, a sex disturbance … just as the impulse of some other women to take up foolish fancies and unnecessary movements is the result of that uneasiness and straining after artificial happiness and unnatural enjoyment which indicates an unsettled and an unsatisfactory state of mind,” she wrote in a newspaper article in 1913. Ballot box (Hamilton Henry Dobbin/California State Library) A tragic pandemic helped the cause The 1918 flu spread easily among soldiers in the last stages of World War I, creating a sudden shortage of men. As women surged into the U.S. workforce, they blew apart the arguments that they were delicate and intellectually inferior — and unequal pay and poor working conditions galvanized their drive for equal rights and protections. Read more facts Dodge’s great-granddaughter, Andrea Dodge, grew up knowing about Josephine Jewell Dodge as a family matriarch and icon. But it wasn’t until she was in graduate school, pursuing her master’s in early-childhood education, that she learned about Jewell Dodge’s role in both the day-care movement and the anti-suffrage movement, she said in an interview. “I turned to my professor and said, ‘That’s my great-grandmother in this book,’ ” Andrea Dodge said. When she later saw a headline about her position on the woman’s right to vote, Andrea Dodge was initially ashamed and disappointed. But as she read on, she grew to understand her great-grandmother’s position, she said. “It’s very clear that she wasn’t degrading or demeaning of women,” Andrea Dodge said. “It was that women were so important to bringing up moral children that they needed to be doing it full time, and needed to be strong and educated and that was going to keep the backbone of society strong.” But while her great-grandmother led a campaign that sought to keep women as mothers and homemakers, Andrea Dodge chose not to have children. She focused on her career instead, working as a teacher in the Head Start program and ultimately working her way to a job as a federal auditor for the program. “I think that the issues she brought up in contesting the issue of women voting, and what it represented,” Andrea Dodge said, “I don’t think we have ever resolved that. We live with it.” Once women were granted the right to vote, many anti-suffragist leaders faced a dilemma over what to do next, said Sunu Kodumthara, associate professor of history at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. After New York state passed a suffrage amendment, a New York Times article in September 1919 captured the contradicting messages in the office of the national anti-suffrage association. On one wall, a sign read: “Politics are bad for women and women are bad for politics.” On the other side of the room was a sign urging members to register to vote. Across the country, many anti-suffragists had resolved to use their newly granted voting power to push for their conservative views, Kodumthara said. In fact, just two years after Oklahoma granted women the right to vote, the vice president of the state’s anti-suffrage association, Alice Robertson, decided to run for office. She became the first woman from Oklahoma elected to Congress. About this story Illustrations by Bárbara Malagoli for The Washington Post. Editing by Lynda Robinson. Art direction by Amanda Soto. Design and development by Madison Walls. Design editing by Suzette Moyer. Copy editing by Anne Kenderdine. Photo editing and research by Mark Miller. What were the major arguments of the women's suffrage?Arguments in support of suffrage were grounded in women's rights:. Natural rights—those who are affected by laws should have a say in making them.. No taxation without representation—women are wage workers and pay taxes.. Legislation will be more moral, educational and humane—women will clean up politics and government.. Who opposed women's suffrage and why?Reasons for suffrage opposition. There were several concerns that drove the anti-suffrage argument. Anti-suffragists felt that giving women the right to vote would threaten the family institution. Illinois anti-suffragist, Caroline Corbin felt that women's highest duties were motherhood and its responsibilities.
Who opposed women's rights in the 1800s?One of the most important anti-suffragist activists was Josephine Jewell Dodge, a founder and president of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. She came from a wealthy and influential New England family; her father, Marshall Jewell, served as a governor of Connecticut and U.S. postmaster general.
Why did men not want women's suffrage?The men and women who opposed woman's suffrage did so for many reasons. Many believed that men and women were fundamentally different and that women should not sully themselves in the dirty world of politics.
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