Her Hat Was in the Ring!
U.S.Women Who Ran for Political Office Before 1920
Cartoons and comic images of women participating in electoral campaigns
| From the early days of the woman's rights movement, cartoonists and satirists made fun of the women and their goals. The cartoons, comic images, and postcards depicted here all concern the possibility of women gaining access to elected political offices. These images cover a forty-year period, with similar themes re-occuring over and over again throughout that time. If women gained access to the franchise and political office then all traditional roles would be overturned. Women would take on the worst behaviors of men in politics, becoming sexualized, coarse, and unethical; men would become feminized and domesticated. In the images shown here political women are either parodied as men or as exaggerated women. The "masculine" women are dressed (at least partially), in male clothing, appear in male bodily positions-arms crossed, legs crossed, fists raised, and smoking a cigar or cigarette. Alternatively women have large hairdos, over-sized hats, and extra flounces or ribbons on their clothes. Often the politics or political positions of these overly "feminized" women candidates are trivialized-for example, calling for a reduction in tariffs on Paris gowns, in the 1909 Walter Wellman postcard "The Suffragette for Senatoress". The issues women's rights activists were fighting for: access to the franchise and elected office; equal rights in marriage; access to education and job training, the professions and skilled worked; economic independence, equal rights to, and protection for their children, were often made to appear ridiculous, trivial, and extremist. A few positive images of women as pariticipants in the political system, in elected office, or as actual politicians did also appear in magazines and newspapers of the day. |
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| CAMPAIGNS AND ELECTIONEERING | WOMEN IN OFFICE |
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CAMPAIGNS AND ELECTIONEERING |
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 "The Age of Brass: Or the Triumph of Woman's Rights," Lithograph Print, Currier and Ives, 1869 Library of Congress "Miss Hang Man" is running for Sheriff and "Susan Sharp-Tongue, the Celebrated Man Tamer" is running for an unspecified office |
 Photographic self-portrait of Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1896, looking similar to the candidate "Susan Sharp Tongue" from "The Age of Brass," in 1869, with skirts raised, legs exposed and crossed, in the "masculine" ankle on knee position, and each woman is smoking. |
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 Cartoon of Belva Lockwood during her 1884 campaign for President of the United States on the front of the September 1884 issue of Puck. For additional cartoons and images of Lockwood click here |
 "The American Woman in Politics"* In 1884 when Lockwood ran for President, women had no direct voice in electoral politics and were forced to act through men. Click for larger version of this page. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, September 30, 1884 |
 Supporters of woman suffrage and rights often stated that women would be more ethical than men and clean up "dirty" politics. Some anti-suffragists believed women would become just as corrupted as men. In this comic postcard a woman campaigner fulfills that idea by paying for votes. Note too the difference in age and class between the "Suffragette" and the women she is paying. Postcard from the Dunston-Weiler Suffragette Series 1909* |
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WOMEN SERVING IN OFFICE |
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 "Another Declaration of Independence"* (click here for a larger version), a positive view of women claiming their political rights appeared in Harper's Weekly, (1910), almost one hundred years after the famous oil painting by John Trumball, "The Declaration of Independence," was placed in the U.S. Capitol in 1819. |
 "Let Women Run the Government" There were popular fears that men would be"feminized" and relegated to child care, if women were elected to public office. Postcard from the Dunston-Weiler Suffragette Series 1909* |
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 Although by 1909 women were serving in state legislatures and many other elected offices, opponents pictured female public officials as only concerned with "feminine frippery" Postcard Walter Wellman Suffragette Series 1909* |
 Another negative deptiction of a woman in a powerful poltical position is seen in this postcard. Sexual politics in the home were conflated with politics in the House [of Representatives]. Postcard Walter Wellman Suffragette Series 1909* |
 "Studies in Expression: When Women Are Jurors", by Charles Dana Gibson, 1902. Although a few women served on juries, beginning in the 1870s (in Wyoming), it was not until the middle of the 20th century that women regularly served in this public capacity. As with the right to serve in elected office, jury service was considered a privilige of electors. |
 There were continued fears that once women gained power in elected positions, their concern would focus on "women's issues," such as marriage. If women were to gain power, men would be diminished, depicted in this comic postcard quite literally Postcard Walter Wellman Suffragette Series 1909 * |
 "When Women Vote"* Mrs. Jones has been elected Sheriff and is surrounded by her female supporters, in this drawing, which appeared in Life magazine (circa 1910). The seated man and young boy look completely downcast, and the "Gibson Girl" seems unsure if she supports the new sheriff. [Click here to see a larger version] |
 This postcard of a young woman with political ambitions has its comic aspects. Postcard, circa 1913* |
*From the private collection of Jill Norgren and Wendy Chmielewski
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