Anti-suffragism

Anti-suffragists in the US in 1911.

Anti-suffragism was a political movement composed mainly of women, begun in the late 19th century in order to campaign against women's suffrage in the United States and United Kingdom. It was closely associated with "domestic feminism", the belief that women had the right to complete freedom within the home.

Anti-suffragism in the UK

The Women's National Anti-Suffrage League (1908–1918) was established in London on 21 July 1908. Its aims were to oppose women being granted the vote in United Kingdom parliamentary elections, although it did support their having votes in local government elections. It was founded at a time when there was a resurgence of support for the women's suffrage movement.

The Women's National Anti-Suffrage League, publisher of the Anti-Suffrage Review, submitted a petition to Parliament in 1907 with 87,500 names, but it was rejected by the Petitions Committee of Parliament as "informal".

An Anti-suffrage correspondence had taken place in the pages of The Times through 1906–1907, with further calls for leadership of the anti-suffrage movement being placed in The Spectator in February 1908. Possibly as early as 1907, a letter was circulated to announce the creation of a National Women's Anti-Suffrage Association and inviting recipients to become a member of the Central Organising Committee or a member. It was issued under the names of thirty peeresses who would become prominent anti-suffragists, as well as a number of peers and MPs. However, the first meeting of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League only took place the following year on 21 July, at the Westminster Palace Hotel with Lady Jersey in the Chair. Seventeen persons were nominated to the central committee at this meeting, including Mrs Humphrey Ward in the chair of the Literary Committee and Gertrude Bell as secretary. Other members were Mrs Frederic Harrison, Miss Lonsdale, Violet Markham, Miss Beatrice Chamberlain and Hilaire Belloc MP.

The League's aims were to oppose women being granted the parliamentary franchise, though it did support their having votes in local and municipal elections. It published the Anti-Suffrage Review from December 1908 until 1918. It gathered 337,018 signatures on an anti-suffrage petition, and founded the first local branch in Hawkenhurst in Kent. The first London branch was established in South Kensington under the auspices of Mary, Countess of Ilchester. Soon after, in May 1910, a Scottish branch was organised into the Scottish National Anti-Suffrage League by the Duchess of Montrose. By December of that year there were 26 branches or sub-branches in the country, a total which grew to 82 by April 1909 and 104 in July 1910. It was announced that 2000 subscriptions had been received by Dec 1908, rising to 9000 in Jul 1909.

In 1910, the group amalgamated with the Men's National League for Opposing Women's Franchise to form the National League for Opposing Women's Suffrage with Lord Cromer as president and Lady Jersey as Vice-President. The merger was in effect a takeover, as the president of the former organisation, Lord Cromer, becoming president of the new one. In 1912 Lord Curzon and Lord Weardale became joint presidents. The organisation continued its activities and the publication of the Anti-Suffrage Review until 1918 when both came to an end as women's suffrage was granted.

Anti-suffragism in the USA

A political cartoon in Harper's lampoons the anti-suffrage movement (1907).

In New York, the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was founded in 1897, and by 1908 it had over 90 members. It was active in producing pamphlets and publications explaining their views of women's suffrage, until the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed in 1920. A Geneva branch was founded in 1909. The suffragists in New York often extended invitations to open discussion with the anti-suffragists.

The New York association had its own magazine, first The Anti-Suffragist published by Mrs. William Winslow Crannell from July 1908 to April 1912, later The Woman's Protest produced by the organization at large.

After the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a coalition of anti-suffragists organized themselves into a political anti-feminist movement in order to "oppose expansion of social welfare programs, women's peace efforts, and to foster a political culture hostile to progressive female activists. They effectively blended anti-feminism and anti-radicalism by embracing and utilizing the hysteria of the post-World War I Red Scare."

Anti-suffragism was not limited to conservative elements. The anarchist Emma Goldman opposed suffragism on the grounds that women were more inclined toward legal enforcement of morality (as in the Women's Christian Temperance Union); that women were the equals of men; and that suffrage would not make a difference. She also said that activists ought to advocate revolution rather than seek greater privileges within an inherently unjust system. Progressives criticized suffrage in the Utah Territory as a cynical Mormon ploy, resulting in the passage of the Edmunds-Tucker Act.

Archives

The archives of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League are held at The Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics, ref 2WNA

The Library and Archives division of the Georgia Historical Society have a collection of broadsides from the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage from 1917–1919. The documents appear to be printed by state affiliates of the national group. One of the documents was issued by The Men's Anti-Ratification League of Montgomery, Alabama.

See also

• Antifeminism
• Timeline of women's suffrage
• Women's suffrage

References

Other sources

• The Times, Wednesday, Jul 22, 1908; pg. 13; Issue 38705; col D
• The Times, Thursday, Dec 08, 1910; pg. 9; Issue 39450; col E: "Woman Suffrage. The Anti-Suffrage Movement, A New Organization."

Further reading

• Jablonsky, Thomas J, "The Home, Heaven, and Mother Party: Female Anti-Suffragists in the United States, 1868–1920." Brooklyn: Carlson, 1994
• Camhi, Jane Jerome. Women Against Women: American Anti-Suffragism, 1880–1920. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Carlson Pub., 1994. ISBN 0-926019-65-1
• Goodier, Susan. No Votes for Women: The New York State Anti-Suffrage Movement (University of Illinois Press; 2013) 272 pages; argues that antis were not against women's rights, but saw the female domestic role as threatened by masculine political responsibilities.
• Harrison, Brian Howard. Separate Spheres : The Opposition to Women’s Suffrage in Britain. London : Croom Helm, 1978.
• Nielsen, Kim. How Did Women Antifeminists Shape and Limit the Social Reform Movements of the 1920s?. Binghamton, NY: State University of New York, 2004 (electronic resource).

Primary sources

• Almroth Wright. The Unexpurgated Case Against Woman Suffrage. London: Constable & Co. Ltd, 1913. Available online: Works by Almroth Wright at Project Gutenberg