The 'Motherhood' Suffrage Trap
A satirical bill in the state legislature proposes limiting the vote to mothers, sparking outrage and a sharp-witted response from suffragists.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Olympia, Jan. 23. A bill will be introduced in the legislature next week providing that women who have one child may vote. The bill is already drawn and makes child-bearing the key to woman's suffrage. Mrs. De Voe, the head of the woman's suffrage lobby, announced that she would present a substitute bill, making paternity a qualification for holding office. She declared that her bill would require all members of the lower house to have at least two children, members of the senate three, supreme judge six, and governor an even dozen. The author of the suffrage bill is keeping under cover, though his measure is in the hands of the bill clerk. The announcement threw the suffrage lobby into a ferment. One and all, however, are indignant, insisting that the bill is nothing more or less than an attempt to belittle their movement and make them appear ridiculous.
“Mrs. De Voe... announced that she would present a substitute bill, making paternity a qualification for holding office.”
This 1909 legislative maneuver highlights the long-standing strategy of weaponizing gender roles to stall political progress. Today, discussions of reproductive rights and 'family values' as political barriers continue to mirror these early-20th-century debates.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.