Mothers & the Family

The Women’s Suffrage Movement in the United States lasted for 72 years, all in support of women winning the right to vote that eventually happened on August 18th, 1920. However, many women involved in the movement struggled between balancing the life of motherhood and advocating for women’s rights because it was out of the norm for women to be involved in politics. We found a variety of artifacts about mothers and their fight for suffrage  and how they managed to balance these two conflicting aspects of life.

One of the iconic suffragettes was Emmeline Pankhurst who was also a mother. In an article entitled Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) Suffragette Leader and Single Parent in Edwardian Britain, Pankhurst’s life as a mother and suffragist leader was discussed. Pankhurst’s husband died when her son was young, so she faced a lot of challenges as a single mother while she was working to propel the women’s suffrage movement (Purvis, 2011, p. 87). She became impoverished as a single parent, but she was still a leader in Britain and helped create the Women’s Social and Political Union (Purvis, 2011, p. 87). Emmeline Pankhurst was crucial to making the women’s suffrage movement successful while parenting her son by herself. Pankhurst was a great example of the challenges that women face which is why looking back at all of the women’s suffrage movement artifacts is so impressive. Looking at the artifacts educates people on how women juggled their roles as mothers and feminist suffragist leaders.

On the other hand, people involved in the Anti-Suffragist movement made it even more difficult for suffragists to thrive. In an article we read in class that connects to our topic is titled, Covering a Countermovement on the Verge of Defeat: The Press and the 1917 Social Movement against Woman Suffrage, written by author Teri Finneman. In this article Ms. Finneman discusses how Anti-Suffragists would create myths to make the public believe changing the "status quo" is unjust and wrong, making people unsure or even fearful of change for women. Finneman says that the problem with countermovement’s reaching the media is that, "Media has the power to determine normal and abnormal social and political activity to say what is politically real and legitimate and what is not (Finneman, p. 5).” This shows how the media had an effect on what society thought was right or wrong. Media helped determine that women were subordinate to men and that they were meant to be housewives and care for their children, unlike men who were involved in politics and working. The media was controlled by men who had no interest in the movement, making it harder for the suffragists to get positive media. This article helps support our claims of how women/mothers involved in the Suffragist Movement went against the social norms that the media laid out and instead fought to make a difference in changing the status quo of everyday life.

Works Cited

Finneman, Teri. “Covering a Countermovement on the Verge of Defeat: The Press and the 1917 Social Movement against Woman Suffrage.” American Journalism, vol. 36, no. 1, 2 July 2019, pp. 124–143., doi:10.1080/08821127.2019.1572416.

Purvis, June. “Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928),Suffragette Leader and Single Parent in Edwardian Britain.” Women’s History Review, vol. 20, no. 1, Feb. 2011, pp. 87–108. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2011297429&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

STUDENT CONTRIBUTORS:

Tierra Jones, Macy Anderson, Emily Malloy, Annika Thomas