Women's Suffrage
At the beginning of the 20th century, women didn't have equal rights. They were seen as a new lower class. Women's suffrage was portrayed in the media in many ways. They took it upon themselves to start movements. They also created organizations, hopefully creating awareness about their cause. I think that this is great example of the good things that can happen if we work together. I think that this is definitely a huge leap for feminism in this time period.Of course we still have a way to go, as far as feminism goes, but during this time period, women definitely upped their stature. Women forced themselves into all social and public aspects of life, including: politics, labor-force participation, popular culture, professions, and mass media. Women were sick of being treated poorly and like they didn't belong, and they decided to do something about it. Hopefully I can be as motivated and as driven as Suffragettes were one day.
As far as the media goes, 20th century suffragist tried to engage the population, by using new forms of media, including film, postcards, photographs, mass market magazines and newspapers in addition to suffrage newspapers. These new forms attracted a small amount of attention, but no where near they would've liked, but a little awareness is better than none. They took control of how they were seen and portrayed in the media. They used "mass media" which was a new matter. This included film and newspaper circulation. The "mass media" would hopefully reach a wider audience and spread more awareness to the readers/watchers. As this media became more common and popular, this was mainly how Suffragettes communicated with the public. This is how they got out their message to the public.
An example of how the Suffragettes took initiative and started something, is the Suffrage Parade in March, 1913. A new generation of Suffragettes created an idea of women being able to vote (while they kept their feminine attributes). Some people were outraged, bewildered, and offended. But some were greatly moved, and some were even ready to take action. Their main argument was that the right to vote wouldn't make a woman more masculine, but their opinions and ideas would be extremely beneficial to take into account.
Suffragettes became known as "municipal housekeepers" by many historians. These women believed that society needed to extended women's roles to more than just affairs in the home. They wanted to be involved in politics. They also wanted to be able to help benefit the welfare of their families. They were sick of cleaning, cooking, etc. day after day. They wanted to take action and actually be apart of something that was bigger than dusting around the house. They also were adamant on protecting children, so affairs involving the youth were driven hard by the Suffragettes.
The things that is most irritating is that when the right to vote was elongated to all races, all social positions, and all incomes, women STILL were unable to vote. This is ridiculous. A man that was illiterate, drunk, or a criminal could vote. Would that vote even help? Most likely not. But an educated woman who has good ideas wasn't allowed to vote because she has 2 X chromosomes. That woman could be famous, but she still wasn't granted the right to vote.
Alice Paul, a suffragette from the 20th century, said "nobody paid much attention to us [Suffragettes] or to anybody else when we went to hearings because we were all voteless". Even if these women had great ideas to help advance the society, nobody would listen. She also said, "So we [suffragettes] were the only group that spoke for the Equal Rights Amendment when it was first put in.”
When women were finally sick of not being able to vote, they began campaigning in democratic countries all over the world to change this. They started their campaigns around the middle of the 19th century. By our modern day standards, these campaigns were "peaceful and dignified". But by the 20th century standards, these women were completely out of control. Some people said that they were making fools out of themselves when they were demanding to be treated like men. What irritates me if the fact that these women were trying to improve their happiness and their life in general and were portrayed like they were going out of control, acting crazy, etc.
As I said earlier, this time period around the 20th century was a huge win for the female population. But still today, we have unequal pay. For every dollar that a man makes, a woman makes 78 cents. I can definitely see more reform in the future. Hopefully, one day we can have completely equal rights between men and women.
Suffragette Cartoons
This cartoon isn't too harsh, which is good because these women are just trying to raise awareness for a cause that they believe in.
This one is almost funny at how ridiculous it is. This is almost like slavery, and is actually absurd.
This cartoon is making fun of Suffragettes at the age of 50. (I still don't understand why people made fun of these women trying to accomplish something!!!!)
This cartoon isn't as bad as the previous ones. Still not a positive message going towards feminists.
This is just another example of how these women were portrayed in the 20th century throughout the media.
All of these cartoons came from:
http://theweek.com/articles/461455/12-cruel-antisuffragette-cartoons
