17. Laughing All the Way to the Ballot Box: An Analysis of American Anti-Suffrage Cartoons

• In Event: Scholar to Scholar Presents: Rhetorician's Nook

Abstract

This paper focuses on the rhetorical workings and production of anti-suffrage political cartoons published in the U.S. during the early 20th Century. Anti-suffrage cartoons reached a wide audience and reinforced the general public’s disagreement with women’s enfranchisement. I briefly reflect on the suffrage movement and the rhetorical function of political cartoons to provide context to the two examples of cartoons created as anti-suffrage propaganda. These cartoons are analyzed in terms of their contents and messages.

Author

• Amanda Jayne Firestone, University of South Florida