Antisuffragists: Conservative and Antifeminist

Antisuffragists: Conservative and Antifeminist
As one of the largest reform movements in the Progressive era, the debate over women’s suffrage drew much controversy and sparked fervent support both for and against the movement. Suffragists radically challenged the idea of natural rights with the right to vote, and the Antisuffragists shot back, refuting that women belonged in their political and social sphere and should not overstep their boundaries. Antisuffragists played strongly on the prejudice towards females present at the time and emphasized conservative ideals to raise support against women voting.
Antisuffragists argued that women naturally belong in the home as homemakers, and should not spend their energy elsewhere. This shows a strongly conservative belief. Men traditionally belong in the public whereas women traditionally belong in private. Both the men and women against suffrage disliked such a radical change. They wished to keep gender roles in their respective places where they had always been. Making men and women equal would deprive society of the specialized roles taken by women such as raising children. Shoving women in to the public, political world would take away their femininity. Conservatives did not want such tasks aspects of women to be lost. For this, Antisuffragists won the support of many conservative men and women alike at the time.
Antisuffragists also used Antifeminism to argue against women voting. In order to retain appropriate gender roles, those against suffrage portrayed women as unintelligent, naïve, and too ignorant to make effective use of a vote. This effectively played on the natural prejudices against women at the time. Most men already felt it proper to keep women out of the political sphere and Antisuffragists used this to raise support for their cause. Some women were also content with their role in society as mothers and wives, and disfavored any proposed change to those roles. It is the “natural order” of...