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.
Full Answer
What is anti-suffragism?
Anti-suffragism was a political movement composed of both men and women that began in the late 19th century in order to campaign against women's suffrage in countries such as Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Who were the anti-suffragists?
Anti-Suffragists: Women's Suffrage A group of men browsing through materials provided by the National Association Opposed to Women's Suffrage. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Public domain. Both women and men participated in anti-suffrage campaigns in America.
What is the meaning of suffragist?
Definition of suffragist : one who advocates extension of suffrage especially to women : a person in the past who worked to get voting rights for people who did not have them
What was the difference between pro suffragist and anti suffragists?
They believed that women had complete freedom in their homes despite what pro suffragist advocated. They regarded pro suffragist as untrue women who disrupted religious customs. The pro suffragist did not take organizing seriously therefore making way for anti suffragist to strengthen their argument.
What did the anti-suffragist believe?
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.
What is the anti-suffragist movement?
The Anti-Suffragist, American periodical, from 1908 to 1912 the voice of a movement whose proponents opposed giving women the vote because they believed it contrary to nature. In July 1908 the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage published the first issue of The Anti-Suffragist.
What did anti-suffragists fight for?
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 does suffragist mean?
Definition of suffragist : one who advocates extension of suffrage especially to women.
Who were famous anti suffragists?
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.
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.
Who voted against women's suffrage?
Much of the opposition to the amendment came from Southern Democrats; only two former Confederate states (Texas and Arkansas) and three border states voted for ratification, with Kentucky and West Virginia not doing so until 1920. Alabama and Georgia were the first states to defeat ratification.
What groups opposed women's suffrage?
The National Association Opposed to Women Suffrage (NAOWS) was founded in the United States by women opposed to the suffrage movement in 1911. It was the most popular anti-suffrage organization in northeastern cities. NAOWS had influential local chapters in many states, including Texas and Virginia.
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.
What is another name for suffragists?
Hyponym for Suffragist: advocate, advocator, proponent, exponent.
How do you use suffragist in a sentence?
Suffragist sentence example She was one of the first British female doctors (1892) and an active suffragist. Arrested several times, she spent more time prison than any other American suffragist. She was to be accompanied by another suffragist leader, Mrs. Mitchell of Ashton.
What is the difference between suffragists and suffragettes?
Suffragists believed in peaceful, constitutional campaign methods. In the early 20th century, after the suffragists failed to make significant progress, a new generation of activists emerged. These women became known as the suffragettes, and they were willing to take direct, militant action for the cause.
What is the meaning of superciliously?
proud, arrogant, haughty, lordly, insolent, overbearing, supercilious, disdainful mean showing scorn for inferiors.
What is a right to suffrage?
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote).
What was the purpose of the Anti-Suffragist magazine?
William Winslow Crannell, chairman of the executive committee of the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, The Anti-Suffragist ’s mission was to present arguments against woman suffrage and to provide a forum for the views of women who did not seek suffrage —a group of women that, according to the magazine, were in the majority. For nearly four years The Anti-Suffragist provided its readers with gratified reports upon woman-suffrage defeats in various states. It also supplied carefully selected examples of instances in which enfranchised women in western states had, from the magazine’s perspective, failed to use their votes to better society. In 1911 the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was formed, and the proposal that the national organization publish its own periodical, The Woman’s Protest, resulted in the voluntary discontinuation of The Anti-Suffragist in April 1912.
What did antisuffragists believe?
In short, antisuffragists believed it was against the laws of nature for women to seek enfranchisement. Edited by Mrs. William Winslow Crannell, chairman of the executive committee of the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, The Anti-Suffragist ’s mission was to present arguments against woman suffrage and to provide a forum ...
When did the antisuffrage movement start?
The quarterly magazine echoed the views of the antisuffrage movement, which began in Massachusetts and New York in the 1890s and eventually gained a foothold in some 20 other states.
When did the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage start?
In 1911 the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was formed, and the proposal that the national organization publish its own periodical, The Woman’s Protest, resulted in the voluntary discontinuation of The Anti-Suffragist in April 1912.
What was the purpose of the anti-suffragist movement?
Their task was to legitimate family-based suffrage and its political analog, local self-government by propertied elites, to voters with increasingly democratic aspirations. Public education campaigns, carried out by distributing campaign buttons through social networks and storefront headquarters, appealed to workingmen’s economic interests and desires to protect their families and communities against feminism, Progressivism, and socialism. (Figure 4) In the early twentieth century, anti-suffragists had to counter suffragists’ allegations that “Antis” were selfish aristocrats or, worse, that they provided political cover for immoral “interests” who benefitted from reform-minded women’s disfranchisement.
What did the suffragists oppose?
Suffragists opposed the inclusion of the word “male” in the amendment’s protection of voting rights, arguing instead for citizen suffrage. After its ratification, some suffragists tested this provision by attempting to vote (and sometimes succeeding), hoping the ensuing litigation would produce a judicial decision that women’s citizenship conferred suffrage. Others petitioned for a woman suffrage amendment, particularly after their failure to secure universal suffrage in the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited denial of the vote on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
What were the suffragists' beliefs about women?
Anti-suffragists, conversely, fought to maintain the male-headed family, rather than the individual citizen, as the representative unit of republican government.[2] While anti-suffragists eventually lost their battle, their opposition delayed woman suffrage for decades and transformed family-based republicanism from a patrician opposition to democratization into a popular defense of tradition and family against feminism and the social welfare state. Suffragists’ belief in individual representation inspired decades of battles over the right to vote and other reforms that supplemented or supplanted traditional family-based government with laws that gave women—and others once assumed to be “naturally” unequal—civil and political rights.[3] For anti-suffragists, the franchise meant more than just the right to enter a voting booth and cast a ballot: the vote was an affirmation of the fundamental political equality of all persons holding it, in both the private and public spheres—a radical interpretation of the founding ideals that anti-suffragists were eager to extinguish wherever it threatened the republic.
Why was women's suffrage important to Addams?
For Addams, woman suffrage was essential to governing a modern urban, industrial, and multiethnic society. Real democracy required developing individual citizens’ capacities, prioritizing the public good, and regulating the corrupting influences of poverty, disease, greed, and machine politics.
What did the anti-suffragists do to the women's right to vote?
Suffragists’ belief in individual representation inspired decades of battles over the right to vote and other reforms that supplemented or supplanted traditional family-based government with laws that gave women—and others once assumed to be “naturally” unequal—civil and political rights.
When did the Massachusetts Association oppose the extension of women's suffrage?
Figure 2. In 1890, the Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women launched the Remonstrance as a digest of local, national, and international anti-suffrage news and strategic planning.
Who opposed women's suffrage?
Calling themselves “remonstrants” or anti-suffragists, which suffragists shortened to “Antis,” they persuaded legislators and the electorate to vote against woman suffrage repeatedly. Anti-suffrage men opposed woman suffrage as clergy, public intellectuals, legislators, and sometimes in organizations; however, many were the silent partners or agents of women’s organizations. For a useful introduction, see Manuela Thurner, “‘Better Citizens without the Ballot’: American AntiSuffrage Women and Their Rationale during the Progressive Era,” Journal of Women's History 5, no. 1 (Spring 1993): 33–60.
What is the anti-suffrage movement?from en.wikipedia.org
The anti-suffrage movement was a counter movement opposing the social movement of women's suffrage in various countries. It could also be considered a counterpublic that espoused a democratic defense of the status quo for women and men in society. As a counter movement, the anti-suffrage movement did not gain traction or start to organize until the women's suffrage began to challenge the current social order.
Why were anti-suffragists anti-equality?from nps.gov
Yet many anti-suffragists were also devoted reformers, and among their anti-equality arguments were those for preserving state gender-based protective labor legislation. NAOWS’s Minnie Bronson, a Theodore Roosevelt–administration veteran, invoked her expertise in labor law to observe that political equality threatened women’s labor laws. As “feminism” emerged in the 1910s, anti-suffragists argued that educated, affluent women might benefit from gender equality, but what of workingwomen who benefitted from labor legislation premised on the state’s interest in protecting women’s maternal health?
What did the 1880s women's suffrage amendment mean?from nps.gov
In the 1880s, anti-suffrage congressmen highlighted woman suffrage as a threat to local self-government and sectional peace, quoting northern remonstrants such as Chicago’s Caroline Corbin, whose Letters from a Chimney-Corner, which linked domesticity with “home rule,” belied her patrician status.[14] As southern states restricted African American male suffrage, their congressmen argued that a proposed woman suffrage amendment threatened not only male authority in the family, but also states’ rights and “local self-government,” a polite term that connoted government by propertied white men, regardless of African American federal citizenship rights.[15] As Alabama Senator John Tyler Morgan explained, a woman suffrage amendment would draw a “line of political demarcation through a man’s household” and “open to the intrusion of politics and politicians that sacred circle of the family where no man should be permitted to intrude.”[16] In defending local self-government, anti-suffragists evoked memories of federal troops supervising southern polls and the alliance of abolitionists and suffragists, and they warned against any northern interference with southern Jim Crow laws—while also appealing to northerners who were leading their own antidemocratic movements.[17] By the mid-1880s, congressional Democrats’ success in stalling legislation and northern anti-suffragists’ remonstrances against extending the vote led to the suffrage movement’s congressional “doldrums.”[18]
What did the suffragists do after the Civil War?from nps.gov
After the Civil War and Reconstruction emancipated enslaved African Americans, established birthright citizenship, and promised equal protection to all citizens, suffragists and reformers fought for decades to realize that equality. Anti-suffragists, conversely, fought to maintain the male-headed family, rather than the individual citizen, as the representative unit of republican government.
Why did women oppose women's suffrage?from ehistory.osu.edu
Others argued that most women did not want the vote and that only a few, mostly radical, women would use it. This thread of argument worked in conjunction with the argument that men could not grant suffrage to only those they deemed worthy; instead, woman suffrage raised the possibility that all women would receive their ballots at the same time, without racial, education, or class distinctions. This frightened those in power, especially the whites of the South.
What did women's suffrage leaders disagree with?from history.house.gov
Women’s suffrage leaders, however, disagreed over strategy and tactics: whether to seek the vote at the federal or state level, whether to offer petitions or pursue litigation, and whether to persuade lawmakers individually or to take to the streets. Both the women’s rights and suffrage movements provided political experience for many ...
What did Stanton and Anthony do in the 15th amendment?from history.house.gov
During the congressional battle over the Fifteenth Amendment, Stanton and Anthony had led a lobbying effort to ensure that voting rights for women were included in the legislation.
What is the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage?
The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS) was founded in 1911 to work against efforts to win the vote for women.
What did the suffrage movement do to the 15th amendment?
which included Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (History.com staff). These women believed that if black men could get the vote it was their chance to push lawmakers for the equality of a woman’s vote. Therefore many suffragist refused to support the 15th amendment until they were given the right to vote. Since some women of the suffrage movement did not agree with this mindset the movement split into two separate groups the pro-15th-Amendment faction formed (American Woman Suffrage Association) and those against the amendment formed (National Woman Suffrage Association). The National Woman Suffrage Association then formed a group that began to fight for a universal-suffrage amendment to the federal Constitution (History.com staff).
What was anti women's rights main argument?
It was a movement that was formed to go against women's suffrage. They believed that women had complete freedom in their homes despite what pro suffragist advocated. They regarded pro suffragist as untrue women who disrupted religious customs. The pro suffragist did not take organizing seriously therefore making way for anti suffragist to strengthen their argument. Since pro suffragist did not advertise as much as they use to the NAOWS took the initiative in making their own pamphlets and flyers which was handed out to women. They advocated and advertised strongly that women should not cast their vote during election day. Therefore by election day only a small percentage of women showed up at the voting polls and because of their strong support system the movement became a well financed organization.
What was the purpose of the National Woman Suffrage Association?
The National Woman Suffrage Association then formed a group that began to fight for a universal-suffrage amendment to the federal Constitution (History.com staff). Soon after these two groups set aside their differences and merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
Did the pro suffragists take organizing seriously?
The pro suffragist did not take organizing seriously therefore making way for anti suffragist to strengthen their argument. Since pro suffragist did not advertise as much as they use to the NAOWS took the initiative in making their own pamphlets and flyers which was handed out to women.
Why did suffragists believe in the vote?from wams.nyhistory.org
Instead of promoting a vision of gender equality, suffragists usually argued that the vote would enable women to be better wives and mothers. Women voters, they said, would bring their moral superiority and domestic expertise to issues of public concern. Anti-suffragists argued that the vote directly threatened domestic life. They believed that women could more effectively promote change outside of the corrupt voting booth.
Who opposed suffrage for radical reasons?from wams.nyhistory.org
Compare both of these documents with the life story of Emma Goldman, who opposed suffrage for radical reasons. How were her beliefs different from the anti-suffrage arguments presented by Alice Hill Chittenden? How might she have responded to both articles?
What do women who oppose women's suffrage believe?from wams.nyhistory.org
Women who are opposed to woman suffrage believe in social reform. However, they believe that they can accomplish more through organizing outside the official political system.
Why did Yousafzai use civil disobedience?from ipl.org
Yousafzai wants women to stop being held back so they can be as successful as men. She has to use civil disobedience to spread the message because so many people are against this message because so many people are narrow minded and she hopes to convince them. In addition, Martin Luther King Jr. was also fighting for a group of people by using civil disobedience.
Why is women's suffrage a right?from ipl.org
Except, no one seemed to care and thought that they were not ready. Allowing women to vote is a right because otherwise it would be considered oppression, women are just as capable as men to vote, and they will help improve the government.
What were the women involved in the suffrage movement?from wams.nyhistory.org
Most women actively involved in the fight were white, educated, and financially stable. Even the arguments they used were similar. Both suffragists and anti-suffragists tended to favor a traditional view of womanhood that embraced women in the home.
