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<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWe have had a splendid suffrage meeting. Tell your mother I wished for her, she would have enjoyed seeing the noted women. I attended Mrs. Julia Ward Howe for tonsillitis & had a good time. Everybody went to the meetings whether they believed in it or not.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
This note to an Alabama woman from a friend attending the 1906 NAWSA convention suggests that such events were long seen as important times of gathering and debate on women’s issues \u2014 whatever one\u2019s stance on the suffrage question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThese speeches by U.S. Representatives from Alabama are philosophically opposed, but they advocate for the same outcome, politically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\nJames Thomas Heflin, “Woman Suffrage Amendment,” U.S. House of Representatives, Jan. 12, 1915<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\nSo, Mr. Speaker, those representatives of the American people who oppose woman suffrage here to-day are doing what they believe is best for the women of this country. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n“Cotton Tom” Heflin argues that opposing suffrage is about having a woman\u2019s \u201chighest and best interest\u201d at heart. Fearful of \u201cradical change,\u201d he is concerned that voting would be a burdensome duty and somehow make women less charming. He is adamantly against a federal amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\nJohn W. Abercrombie, speech on the woman suffrage amendment, U.S. House of Representatives, Jan. 12, 1915<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\nIf it be claimed that the majority of women do not desire the ballot and would not vote, I answer that right and justice can not be estimated in numbers…<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\nJohn Abercrombie, on the other hand, uses most of the his speech to counter several common objections about woman suffrage. However, despite his apparent support on principle, Abercrombie is like most Southern politicians of the time: he views the issue as one for the states to decide, so he will not support a federal amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nArthur Collins Maclay, Is Christianity Hostile to the Cause of Woman Suffrage?<\/em>, 1913.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn appreciation of his manly attitude in opposing woman-suffrage.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The New England author of this anti-suffrage pamphlet inscribed a copy he sent to Alabama Rep. “Cotton Tom” Heflin, to recognize that he was an ally to the cause — an apparently very publicly visible one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAlabama Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, \u201cWoman Suffrage in Action!\u201d c. 1918 (Hoole Broadsides Collection).<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\nMen of Alabama, do you like this prospect for your wife, your daughter, or for the woman who may become your wife? If so,<\/em><\/p>
WAKE UP AND FIGHT WOMAN SUFFRAGE Whenever and Wherever It Bobs Up Its Head.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\nThis flier advances a common argument against granting woman suffrage: that voting leads to jury duty. It attempts to scare male readers by describing the realities of their loved ones serving on a jury, including hearing about all nature of vices and neglecting the care of children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opponents of woman suffrage often argued that those who cannot fight in wars in order to enforce laws should not be making them. Jury duty, tied to voting, was seen as another means of enforcement. Evidently by this time, this general argument no longer held water — after all, non-combatant men have long had the right to vote and otherwise participate in civic life — so this flier turned to using jury duty itself as its own kind of scare tactic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nEntanglements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The anti-suffrage movement was bound to fail in the face of two overwhelming realities of the 1910s: the temperance movement and World War I. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The desire to bring about prohibition of alcohol led many otherwise complacent women to push for the vote, as they were the important drivers of the temperance movement. In general, many women argued for the vote so as to tackle a range of social realities that hurt families, including alcoholism and child labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, World War I showed that women were capable of taking on new roles in society; suffrage could not be far behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\u201c’Woman Suffrage Very Largely a War Question,'” Albany-Decatur Daily<\/em>, Aug. 20, 1917.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nThis article shows how the entry of the U.S. into World War I brings it in line with other world powers in more ways than one. Like their counterparts in the U.K., France, and Canada — whose representatives are all quoted here — American women are agitating for suffrage as a war measure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later that year, Canada enfranchised women serving in the military and female relatives of soldiers serving overseas. Wider woman suffrage came in 1918. Woman suffrage (with age and property restrictions) was granted in the U.K. in 1918 as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In France, however, woman suffrage was not granted until 1944, near the end of World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\nDavid Lawrence, \u201cWomen vs. Suffragists\u201d [editorial], Selma Times-Journal<\/em>, Aug. 6, 1918.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n