For over a century Americans debated whether women should vote. They wondered: was voting compatible with women’s traditional domestic work? If women participated in politics, would men continue as heads of the family? Would women remain virtuous and “feminine” or would they start to look and act like men?

In Massachusetts, suffragists were especially powerful. In 1850, Worcester hosted the first national women’s rights convention. Later, Lucy Stone led the nation’s largest suffrage organization and edited the longest-running women’s rights newspaper from her Park Street office. In 1895, fellow Bostonian Josephine Ruffin founded one of the first national groups to advocate for the rights of women of color.

Local anti-suffragists proved influential too. Their arguments against extending the vote to women dominated legislative debates and newspaper articles. In 1895, Massachusetts men and women formed the nation’s first organized anti-suffrage association.

This online presentation highlights the fight over a woman’s right to vote in Massachusetts by illustrating the arguments made by suffragists and their opponents. Women at the polls might seem unremarkable today; but these contentious campaigns prove that suffragists had to work hard to persuade men to vote to share the ballot. These century-old arguments formed the foundations for today’s debates about gender and politics.

Pro Suffrage Organizations

To win the vote, suffragists had to convince the public to accept new gender roles for women. Anti-suffragists feared that female voters would abandon their families and leave domestic chores to men. They claimed that female voters would become less virtuous and more masculine. Women’s votes might destroy the family and, ultimately, American society.

Suffragists argued that female voters would actually improve American life. They contended that women—especially white women—would clean up corrupt politics and support legislation that protected families. Women could remain feminine, run households, and cast ballots. Female voters would not only continue to care for their families; they would do it better.

After the Civil War, suffragists formed two competing national organizations. They disagreed over the 15th Amendment, which granted black men the right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony opposed the measure and founded the New York-based National Woman Suffrage Association. Lucy Stone supported the 15th Amendment and founded the Boston-based American Woman Suffrage Association. In 1890, Alice Stone Blackwell, Stone’s daughter, facilitated the union of the two groups.

Stone never gained the prominence that Stanton and Anthony did. For example, while Stone rarely sold her portrait, the famous pair regularly distributed theirs. In the 19th century, women seldom became public figures. Stanton and Anthony wanted the public to view them as political leaders of the suffrage movement.