In Defense of Separate Spheres: Class and Status Politics in the Antisuffrage Movement

This paper analyzes the ideological content of American antisuffragism, a conservative countermovement which attracted a predominantly female membership. Rhetorical analysis of The Woman's Protest, the official journal of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage between 1912–18, suggests that mobilization to the antisuffrage cause was motivated by both status and class concerns. It included a status defense of the homemaker lifestyle, fueled by fears of declining prestige, and also protected class interests, since antisuffrage women were attempting to safeguard their own material privileges and prevent the proletarianization which paid employment represented. The theoretical implications of these findings for the study of social movements and gender stratification are also discussed.