The picture above was commissioned during the early 1900’s for the political humor magazine, Puck, to predict what the future would look like if women were liberated.
The cartoonist dramatically portrays a scene of women smoking, drinking and gambling — with one woman coldly ignoring her children. Note how there are no men in the pub either, as if they have been replaced by the new arrival of these stern-faced women.
The illustration, and many others like it, were circulating around the United States and England between the 1890s and early 1900s. They were aimed at discrediting the women’s rights movement.
Here are some more we found:
These pictures often appeared in postcards, magazines, and even on billboards.
They hinted at a Dystopian future, should women be given the right to vote.
This scene arrogantly implies it would be acceptable if the genders were reversed.
What’s interesting about some of these is how they unintentionally paint a rather bad picture of men, by suggesting women would adopt male vices, while men would be forced to carry out household chores typically performed by women. From today’s perspective, it says all we need to know about how arrogant gender stereotypes truly were at the time.