Anti-suffrage propaganda was fierce as hell<\/a>, although modern women have probably seen worse in the deep dark corners of the internet (and probably their inboxes). Looking back, it\u2019s\u00a0jarring (and\u00a0honestly sad)\u00a0that\u00a0so many of these posters showed men taking care of children as a societal nightmare<\/a>\u00a0instead of the utter joy most modern fathers see it as.<\/p>\n Instead of further bruising the male ego, the suffragettes came up with\u00a0a range of campaigns<\/a>\u00a0to quell the fear of social disaster and familiar destruction. These included:<\/p>\n They additionally used the\u00a0power of symbols and imagery<\/a>\u00a0to draw attention, change associations and garner recognition to their plight. For instance, they used the color white to battle their image as ugly spinsters to show purity of cause, youth and vitality. (I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s cool, I\u2019m just saying it\u2019s what happened.)<\/p>\n Lesson:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cWhen they go low, we go high.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Michelle Obama<\/p>\n Many suffragettes decided to distance themselves from the Black women among their ranks because they believed focusing on the vote for white women would help their cause. They departed from their abolitionist roots and started courting Southern women, leaving out their Black sisters to appease the\u00a0racially-divided\u00a0south.<\/p>\n Not only was it cringeworthy, this tactic clearly failed as Black men won the vote before women did.<\/p>\n Lesson:<\/strong>\u00a0Throwing your comrades under the bus has consequences and is not a good look in the eyes of history.<\/p>\n In case you haven\u2019t picked up on it yet, most of the suffragettes were problematic at best and horribly racist at worse. When Black men won the vote before women as the 15th amendment was ratified, white suffragettes were, in a single phrase,\u00a0less than\u00a0pleased.\u00a0Susan\u00a0B. Anthony<\/a> went on to proclaim,\u00a0\u201cI will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work or demand the ballot for the Negro and not the woman.\u201d\u00a0Yikes.<\/p>\n White women saw the 15th amendment as a slap in the face, turning a blind eye to the crimes of white southern women (who had made up 30% of slave owners), and essentially\u00a0upheld a white supremacist stance<\/a>\u00a0to court political favor.<\/p>\n Lesson:<\/strong>\u00a0Kill your idols. Every. Single. One.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel that I have the right to have just as much as a man. There is a great stir about colored men\u00a0getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and colored women not theirs, the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Sojourner Truth\u00a0(1867)<\/p>\n Interestingly enough, the famous \u201cAin\u2019t I a woman?\u201d speech\u00a0may\u00a0not have even contained that phrase<\/a>, as Truth\u2019s words were changed to sound more southern 12 years after the original transcription by\u00a0Frances Dana Gage<\/a>. Truth didn\u2019t speak in a southern dialect as she grew up in New York, but as Tammy L. Brown points out, these vernacular changes\u00a0\u201cdepicted Truth to white audiences as a genuine albeit primitive ally in the fight for women\u2019s rights\u2026\u00a0this progress is tainted by white suffragists\u2019\u00a0attempts to control Truth\u2019s voice.\u201d\u00a0Despite the bastardization of her words, this OG abolitionist and champion of civil rights kept speaking out until the day she died, fighting for the liberty of all people.<\/p>\n Ida B. Wells-Barnett, a lesser known MVP of the suffrage and early civil rights movement, was outspoken about how little white liberals were doing<\/a> to oppose crimes against Black Southerners. She organized an anti-lynching campaign and then went on to organize the Alpha Suffrage Club for Black women in Chicago. The women were met with opposition from the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession. Wells-Barnett refused to be delegated to the back of the parade<\/a> and instead rushed in to walk between two white supporters to protest the segregation decision. Despite the efforts of many of the suffrage movement\u2019s leaders, activists like Wells-Barnett would not back down from contributing to the movement.<\/p>\n Lesson:<\/strong> Segregation is no way to dismantle the patriarchy.<\/p>\n In 1913, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns broke from the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to form the National Women\u2019s Party (NWP) because they thought the NAWSA\u00a0were not getting rowdy enough to make\u00a0s#*t\u00a0happen. They were a significantly smaller force\u00a0\u2014\u00a050,000 vs.\u00a0NAWSA\u2019s 2 million\u00a0\u2014\u00a0but they went hard. They\u00a0continued protests during World War I<\/a>, calling out Woodrow Wilson\u2019s hypocritical war stance,\u00a0while NAWSA took a break from\u00a0campaigning to contribute to the war effort instead. The NWP were focused on winning a federal amendment rather than the NAWSA\u2019s state-by-state approach, as they felt\u00a0that strategy had already taken\u00a0too long.<\/p>\n Their tactics included<\/a>:<\/p>\n During their wartime protests, the\u00a0\u201cSilent Sentinels\u201d\u00a0were\u00a0arrested, beaten,\u00a0and tortured<\/a>. Any anti-government criticism during the war was seen as treason.<\/p>\n Lesson:<\/strong>\u00a0The road to justice is a bumpy one. We area standing on the shoulders of women and men who faced government cruelty in response to calls for equality\u2014which inadvertently worked to tip the scales in favor of the oppressed. When the going gets tough, the tough\u00a0double down\u00a0for their cause.<\/p>\n In the early 20th Century, suffragette art became more\u00a0sophisticated\u00a0and targeted<\/a>. Posters and ads depicted the glory of equality that had already been won at the state level in much of the west, the education, work,\u00a0and taxes women have contributed to society, and depictions of torture in prisons.<\/p>\n Leaders like Alice Burns coordinated with the press to get images of suffragette arrests in newspapers across the nation. They also created the Jailed for Freedom pin that was given to all the women who were arrested and tortured for picketing and demanding the vote. By circulating\u00a0photographs of their arrests<\/a>, the suffragettes were able to paint a more sympathetic portrait of their cause.<\/p>\n Eventually,\u00a0Puck<\/em>\u00a0magazine, which originally published anti-suffrage cartoons, started publishing\u00a0pro-suffrage cartoons<\/a>\u00a0instead. Public opinion started to turn, the women\u2019s contribution to the war effort became undeniable, and enough representatives were\u00a0finally worn down\u00a0enough (or convinced, who knows) to vote for the 19th amendment\u2019s ratification.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen have suffered agony of soul which you can never comprehend, that you and your daughters might inherit political freedom. That vote has been costly. Prize it!\u201d \u2014 Carrie Chapman Catt<\/a> (1920)<\/p>\n However, this wasn\u2019t the end of the fight<\/a>, especially for Black women, who had additional barriers and voter suppression to contend with. In fact, the battle for universal suffrage isn\u2019t quite over, at least not in practice. With voter ID laws, the shutdown of polling locations, reduced opportunities for registration, limiting early and mail-in voting,*\u00a0 and most pressingly attacks on the US Postal Service<\/a>, voters are facing more challenges than ever to cast their ballot.<\/p>\n *These measures were introduced in\u00a0more than\u00a0a dozen pivotal states\u00a0after voter turnout increased<\/a>\u00a0between 2004 and 2008 which\u00a0has me shaking my head, to say the least.<\/p>\n What can we do?\u00a0Save the USPS<\/a>.\u00a0Call our Senators and Representatives<\/a>\u00a0to demand an end to\u00a0voter suppression (along with any other issues you may care to bring up), and for the love of liberty,\u00a0VOTE<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lesson:<\/strong>\u00a0The truth of oppressive brutality, targeted lobbying, and showing your worth can swing public opinion, but the battle is never truly over.<\/p>\n About the author.<\/strong> In 1920, after over a century of proposals, petitions, and protests, the 19th Amendment was finally ratified, granting women the right to vote. The road to that ratification is long, messy and complex, just like most of American history. As with many complex battles, there are lessons to be learned. Here\u2019s a breakdown of what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":54160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative-insights","category-dei"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"suffragette\"](\"https:\/\/www.creativecircle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/suffragette-669x1024.png\")
Image credit: Woman Suffrage Memorabilia<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nBattling Bad Press<\/h3>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.creativecircle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/votes4women.png\")
Image credit: Library of Congress<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nSelling Out the Sisterhood<\/h3>\n
Racism Within the Movement<\/h3>\n
Black Women Speak Up<\/h3>\n
Deeds, Not Words<\/h3>\n
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The Tides Turn<\/h3>\n
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\nAlessandra is the mentor, educator, and writer behind\u202fBoneseed, a private practice devoted to deep self-inquiry through a range of physical, energetic, and mental modalities. She has over 500 hours of yoga, mentorship, and facilitation training and can be found slinging knowledge on her website, newsletter, and @bone.seed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"