"Handicapped!", 1909 UK poster: A woman rows a small boat against high waves while a man in a sailboat glides past, his sail

"Handicapped!" (Artists' Suffrage League poster, London, 1909)

A woman rows a small boat against high waves while a man in a sailboat glides past, his sail marked 'VOTES'; the Houses of Parliament sit on the horizon. The tell: the contrast of effort and ease carries the whole argument, and the one word on the sail says what the difference is.

A 1909 London poster by the Artists' Suffrage League, printed by Carl Hentschel Ltd., recorded as the winner of a poster competition and aimed at a domestic public. A woman rows a small boat against high waves while a man in a sailboat glides past, his sail marked 'VOTES', with the Houses of Parliament on the horizon. The title is 'Handicapped!'. It asks viewers to support votes for women. Appeal to emotion carries the argument through the contrast of effort and ease.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Appeal to emotion

Date: 1909
Period: Pre-1914
Made by: Artists' Suffrage League, London (printed by Carl Hentschel Ltd.)

Full record

Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights

Region: Western and Central Europe
Country: United Kingdom
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: Movement
Regime: Asquith Government
Leader: Herbert Henry Asquith
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Persuade or win support
Themes: Gender and suffrage, Elections and party politics
Event: British Suffrage Campaign
Regime: Asquith government
Leader: H. H. Asquith
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, retrieved October 10, 2026
Rights: Public domain (published 1909, before 1931); LoC: no known restrictions on publication
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LCCN 97518871. "Handicapped!" (Artists' Suffrage League poster, London, 1909)