Beyond Supply & Demand: Duke Economics Students Present 100 Years of American Women’s Suffrage

Men’s Perspectives

Women’s suffrage was not just a women’s issue. Men of any political party, region, religion or class might have stood on either side of the suffrage debate, but given they held the majority of the political power at the time, it was necessary for women to gain their support. These objects offer examples of the ways that women allied themselves with sympathetic and supportive men and the ways that men actively contributed to or opposed the suffrage movement, including the voices of an anonymous book author, an anti-suffrage organization, and a newspaper editor.

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Black ink cartoon from book with a woman on a couch leaning towardsa man in a suit with a furrowed brow asking "Oh, Mr. Blank. Do you think women should vote?"

Cartoon in How It Feels To Be The Husband Of A Suffragette

This book by the anonymous “Him,” published shortly after the suffrage parade on 5th Avenue in New York City in 1915, offers a self-deprecating and humorous account of men supporting women’s suffrage. While the tone of the book is occasionally patronizing, the author’s criticism of anti-suffrage men is unsparing. The book contains illustrations by May Wilson Preston, a prominent artist for the suffrage movement.

Title page of publication with typed black text on yellowed paper framed by box

If I Were a Woman

A native Southerner who spent most of his career in Colorado, which passed women’s suffrage in 1893, Judge Benjamin Barr Lindsey called for Americans to be active in supporting equal suffrage movements. Having established the first juvenile court in Denver to promote the rights and welfare of children, Judge Lindsey also championed women’s rights. With this publication, he sought to use his professional experience to promote the cause by inspiring both men and women alike to realize the benefits of women’s suffrage in public and private life.

Anti-Suffrage

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