When women vote, these "terrible" things will happen...

Don't promise me a good time!

Nothing makes the case for women’s rights like anti-suffragist cartoons, which tried to paint women’s emancipation as a circle of hell where men have to watch the children and do the washing while the women vote, smoke and have a great time. Maybe it’s a hellscape for the bros, but it sure sells female voting to me.

I mean, look at these ladies chillaxing on wash day! Chatting with my lady friends and eating chocolates instead of dealing with a screaming baby and doing laundry the old-fashioned way? Yes please.

A lot of women did want the vote to protect the home and saw no need for upheaval in gender roles—a story for another day.

Speaking of being being afraid of upheaval in gender roles, there is this postcard from 1918. Oh no, girls might kiss girls. Like I said, don’t promise us a good time!

This one was supposed to make Suffragists look silly (cats voting lols!), but to be fair, the anti’s did not yet know about the powerful combination of cats, women and the internet. There is actually an interesting history of women’s suffrage and the cat—read more here.

These images—and many other similar ones—all play on men’s fear of emasculation. And it was the men who would be voting on any legislation that would empower women—whether the vote, the right to divorce, to raise the age of consent for girls, for women keep their wages or have custody over their own children. So it would appear that this fear—of laundry and babies and cats—is one reason it took so long for women to gain equality at the ballot box or on a paycheck. But the funny thing is: all this did somewhat come true—Girls kiss girls, men do laundry, and the baby is still screaming—and the world has not ended.