3. Women Don’t Want to Vote
The Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League was a real thing. It started in London in 1908 and was, as its name suggested, organized in adamant opposition to women gaining the right to vote, especially in national elections. Anti-suffragette societies also existed across the Atlantic, in the United States. While one might expect that these societies were primarily composed of men, there were actually many women were actively participated in them.
The suffragette activists had an easy time dismissing the arguments against suffrage that were put forth by men. What they had a hard time doing was doing away with the arguments that were put forth by women. When men say that women don’t want to vote, women suffragettes can quickly step in and say, “Oh yes, we do!” However, when women say that they don’t want to vote? They put these suffragettes into a real bind.
Some of these arguments claimed that women had their own individual work to do — namely, concern themselves with hearth and home — and that a cornerstone of civilization as we know it lies in the division of tasks between men and women.
Ultimately, the anti-suffragette and suffragette movements proved to be interrelated, and close analyses of the suffragette victories can be, at least indirectly, traced to the derailing efforts of the anti-suffragette women.