Suffrage is a boring word. I always thought eyes glazing over was just a figure of speech until I would start talking about “the women’s suffrage movement” and I could see that even my nearest and dearest couldn’t manage to stay focused. Look, it’s not a fun word. It sounds like suffering. It sounds soft and ugh.
But the story of women’s suffrage is the story of a slow-burn revolution that got the vote for half the population and made sure America lived up to her promise. It was the largest non-violent revolution in history! It was powered by truly radical women! It’s one of the great American stories!
But I often think back to a horrifying video on The Man Show (remember that old bro show!?) where the hosts embark on stunt to try to get signatures on a petition to “stop women’s suffragging.” And women sign it! Because they don’t know what it means? I hope?
Watch it and be horrified:
Suffrage means the right to vote. It’s the right to participate in democracy. It is a right that you want to have and should have. It took seventy-two years of constant advocacy, agitation and outright fighting for women to get the vote in America.
Don’t fall asleep on this word.
Don’t sign a petition to stop suffraging.
So what’s the difference between a Suffragist and a Suffragette?
Maybe you’ve heard both terms. Maybe you only know the song Sister Suffragette from the movie Mary Poppins. Maybe this is all new to you.
A person who advocates that the right to vote be extended to more people, especially women, is a Suffragist. Most of the women (and men!) of the movement referred to themselves as such. This is a serious and respectful form of address.
Suffragette is the “cute” name given to the radical English Suffragists of the early 1900s as a way to diminish their power. Even though there is nothing cute about breaking windows, violent protests, and hunger strikes just so you can have equality. Kindly do not confuse these terms, according to The Complete History of Women’s Suffrage, Vol 6: “There was much protest over being called ‘suffragettes’, when they were really ‘suffragists’, the former being the English for for ‘militants.’”
You will hear me refer to The Suffs because I think it sounds like an all-female punk band (which is how I like to think of both the Suffragists and Suffragettes). The earliest recorded use I’ve seen of this comes from Doris Stevens in her 1920 book Jailed For Freedom. It is also frequently used in my notes because it’s faster and easier to write and avoids belaboring the -gist and -gette distinction. The Suffs is also the name of a Broadway musical about the last seven years of the Suffrage movement. Hopefully the show will have us all talking about The Suffs with eyes lighting up instead of glazing over.