Postcard Illustration from the Suffragist Era

Today is Election Day in the United States. Yesterday, I came across an opportune article about the Suffragist movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the illustrated postcards that argued for and against women obtaining the right to vote. It's interesting (depressing) to note that some of the arguments haven't changed much over the past hundred years when it comes to gender roles and issues that affect women.

I love the idea (still alive and well today, especially on cleaning product commercials) that certain tasks are dismissed as "women's work" until men do them. Then they're suddenly soooooo hard!
Palczewski, Catherine H. Postcard Archive. University of Northern Iowa. Cedar Falls, IA.

Rose O'Neill, the illustrator famous for creating the Kewpies, was active in women's fight to win the vote.

"Give Mother the Vote!" women's suffrage poster. Chromolithograph published by the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co., artwork by Rose C. O'Neil, 1915. Missouri History Museum Photographs and Prints Collections. Women's Suffrage. N20256.

For more about the postcards, check out the Palczewski Suffrage Postcard Archive.

If you live in the United States and haven't already, don't forget to go out today and exercise your right to vote!