Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: The intersection of the international suffrage movement and World War I created a unique opportunity to recast female citizenship.Nearly seven months after the United States officially entered the war, the passage of the New York State suffrage referendum redirected public discourse away from debates over women's suffrage and towards their civic preparedness and citizenship.Analyzing women's civics manuals published in the period after the New York victory, I argue that World War I sharply circumscribed the ways female citizenship could be articulated.Fears of sedition provided ammunition for the critiques of anti-suffragists who conflated radicalism, socialism, pacifism, and feminism with suffrage.In response, the manuals crafted an image of female citizenship which uncoupled feminism and suffrage and framed political participation as a maternal undertaking.Ultimately, the manuals cultivated a traditional female citizen in an effort to mitigate any association or sympathy women might have with radical thought.This thesis provides insight into the external pressures that encouraged women to maintain their presuffrage political approach.
Author: Kathryn M. Brown
Institution: Bowling Green State University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2240859960