Suffrage Songs

 

Above are examples of suffrage songs.  Songs have a number of advantages over other texts. They give protestors license to challenge, exaggerate and pretend. They are powerful nonverbal as well as verbal components. They allow protestors to become active participants in the movement while singing along to rhythms. Also the repetition in songs allows the persuader to reinforce again and again the point of the message, like in the last song “Good News, Ladies” the song repeats itself saying “Good News, Ladies” “Good News, Ladies” and “Sweet Dreams, Ladies” “Sweet Dreams, Ladies.” Overall songs like these served to engerize the women in the movement and increase their self-worth.

http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/204064

 

Pamphlets, Newspapers, Quotes

 

I watched a river of women,
Rippling purple, white and golden,
Stream toward the National Capitol.

Along its border,
Like a purple flower floating,
Moved a young woman, worn, wraithlike,
With eyes alight, keenly observing the marchers.
Out there on the curb, she looked so little, so lonely;
Few appeared even to see her;
No one saluted her.

Yet commander was she of the column, its leader;
She was the spring whence arose that irresistible river of women
Streaming steadily towards the National Capitol.

KATHERINE ROLSTON FISHER,
The Suffragist, January 19, 1918.

“Equality of rights under the

law shall not be denied or

abridged by the United States or

by any state on account of sex.”

–Equal Rights Amendment

 

Slogans, Posters, Political Cartoons

The following images represent various slogans, posters, and political cartoons used to advocate for the Women’s Suffrage Movement.

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Symbol = Yellow Ribbon-  worn by Anne Fitzhugh Miller (1856-1912) as she marched down Fifth Avenue with more than three thousand women in the May 6, 1911, New York Suffrage Parade.

 

These two pictures feature common slogans used during the Women’s Marches.

“Wilson is against Women”

“President Wilson How Long Do You Advise Us To Wait?”

These slogans are easy to remember, release pent-up emotions, and keep the women focused on a goal.

Slogans during the Women’s Suffrage movement varied from 3 different types:

1. Spontaneous: original, short, and rhythmic slogans
2. Sanctioned: official slogans of the movement, appearing on mastheads of publications (such as the posters below)
3. Advertising: short statements that emphasize a single demand or keep the social movement visible

These slogans also utilize the rhetoric of polarization in that they identify the devil as President Woodrow Wilson. He is omnipotent (all powerful), omnipresent, and overall someone to blame for the women’s inequality. They use ridicule to make fun of him and spin off his own words to affirm the women’s group identity.

Above are two images of common posters seen throughout the Women’s Suffrage movement.

Below are two images of political cartoons seen throughout the Women’s Suffrage movement.

 

*All images were acquired through Google Images