“Woman Suffrage Would Undermine the Stable Foundation on Which Democratic Government is Based”: British Democratic Antisuffragists, 1904–1914

From 1904 to 1914, the British debate on women’s suffrage was at its height. Suffragism has been the subject of numerous studies, however, few have paid attention to its opponent, “antisuffragism”. This article focuses on antisuffragists’ speeches, pamphlets and books to examine their uses of “democracy” and grasp the conceptual struggles at play. Most “Antis” painted women’s suffrage as a step towards a degenerate democratic society. However, more surprisingly, some also mobilised the democratic vocabulary positively, as a reason to disallow women the vote. Several authors considered that “democracy” rested on the capacity of the majority to impose its decisions through physical force–thus rendering a government elected by women impotent. Politicians also opposed granting women suffrage on a censorial basis since it went against the “democratic spirit of the time”. These findings demonstrate the increased importance of “democracy” in Britain and how a “conservative subversion” of the concept was attempted.

Media Portrayals of the Woman Suffrage Movement

Contributor Tina Olsin Lent investigates representations of the women in four recent filmic representations of this movement: Ruth Pollak’s 1995 episode of PBS’s American Experience, One Woman, One Vote, Ken Burns’s 1999 documentary, Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, Katja von Garnier’s 2004 HBO feature, Iron Jawed Angels, and Sarah Gavron’s 2015 feature film, Suffragette. Lent relates the new pattern of films to a number of cultural shifts that arise by the mid-1990s. Women assume more prominent positions within the film industry. Stories centered on women begin to find their way into films circulated in wide-release. Women also become more active in politics. And, notable anniversaries of various woman’s suffrage movements around the world begin to occur. Lent pays particular attention to the ways in which the histories found in the above four films bend to fit the narrative and political priorities surrounding each production.