"In Belgium and yet when she wanted the vote they told her a woman's place was in the home" (cartoon, 1914)

A woman feeds two children from a pot on a stove inside a room wrecked by shellfire, as another figure stands in the doorway. The tell: the war ruins the argument that her place is in the home, since the home itself is what has been destroyed.

Rollin Kirby, probably for the New York World, drew this cartoon, which the Library of Congress dates [1914?], for a US domestic audience during the woman suffrage campaign. A woman feeds two children from a pot on a stove inside a room wrecked by shellfire, as another figure stands in the doorway, under the title "In Belgium and yet when she wanted the vote they told her a woman's place was in the home". The catalogue note says a general strike in Belgium in 1913 won suffrage for men but not for women, and the cartoon uses the German invasion of 1914 to argue about votes at home. Appeal to emotion is the first tag: pity for the ruined household carries the point that the home argument has collapsed. Whataboutism is also tagged: the argument about a woman's place is answered by pointing to a different situation, Belgium under invasion.

Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

Appeal to emotionWhataboutism

Date

1914

Period

First World War

Made by

Rollin Kirby (cartoonist), probably for the New York World