Imagery of the American Suffrage Movement: The Strategic Implementation of Traditional Gender Roles

Abstract

In the final decades of the American suffrage movement (1900-1920), suffrage artists created cartoons and postcards to voice their arguments and refute the arguments of anti-suffragists. The surviving suffrage imagery demonstrates the image women chose to introduce, while commercial postcards and opposing cartoons present the prevailing societal attitude toward women’s suffrage. Suffrage artists’ understanding and use of traditional gender roles played a key part in their calculated effort to change public perception of their cause. Suffrage artists cunningly crafted images of relatable and admirable voters and depicted women that cared about both the vote and their families. The prevailing understanding of gender roles, held by prospective suffragists, voting men, and politicians, shaped the imagery and themes utilized by suffrage artists.