Thesis
We never will be the aggressor: suffrage and the politics of gender, 1880-1920
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2012
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/100175
Abstract
At the turn of the twentieth century, an increasingly popular women’s rights movement called for greater equality in marriage, divorce, property law, and affairs of the state. Contemporaneous with the increase in female political activity was a burgeoning suffrage movement focused on women gaining the right to vote. There was, however, sizable opposition to this movement and while those who resisted female enfranchisement did so for many reasons, their enmity often generated debate about the proper role of women and the potential consequences of extending the ballot. My thesis examines the perceived threats posed by suffrage as well as the responses of the woman suffragists to their opponents’ attacks. Specifically, my research focuses on the ways in which suffragists reacted to and confronted negative stereotypes and images of the politically active woman. Suffragists were depicted by their detractors as threatening gender conventions. At risk of losing traditional “womanly” characteristics, politically active women were often depicted as “masculine,” “degenerate,” or “abnormal.” My thesis shows that suffragists managed their public persona and public presentation of self in their biographies, autobiographies, and self-histories. Here they worked actively to blunt their political participation by consciously staking out and applying a recognizably feminine persona. This approach, they believed, would make their public participation more palatable to politicians, male voters, potential activists, and the general public.
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Details
- Title
- We never will be the aggressor
- Creators
- Jessica Derleth
- Contributors
- Jennifer Thigpen (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- History, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525090901842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis