---
title: '"Shall Women Vote?" (Puck centerfold, 31 March 1909)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/shall-women-vote-puck-1909/
description: A man labelled 'Graft Politics' pays a tramp labelled 'Floater' at the end of a line outside a polling place while holding back a woman who is trying
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. "Shall Women Vote?" (Puck centerfold, 31 March 1909)

[!["Shall Women Vote?", 1909 US cartoon: A man labelled 'Graft Politics' pays a tramp labelled 'Floater' at the end of a line](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/shall-women-vote-puck-1909.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/shall-women-vote-puck-1909.jpg)

# "Shall Women Vote?" (Puck centerfold, 31 March 1909)

A man labelled 'Graft Politics' pays a tramp labelled 'Floater' at the end of a line outside a polling place while holding back a woman who is trying to speak for suffrage; vignettes around the edge show women in sweatshops, children minding children, tenements and arrests. The tell: the only evidence shown is hardship, and the answer to it is placed at the ballot box.

A full-colour double-page cartoon from Puck (Keppler & Schwarzmann, New York), dated 31 March 1909. A man labelled "Graft Politics" pays a tramp labelled "Floater" in a line outside a polling place while holding back a woman trying to speak for suffrage, and vignettes around the edge show women in sweatshops, children minding children, tenements and arrests. It argues for suffrage, with the printed caption voicing the opposing view ironically. Appeal to emotion and card stacking show in hardship as the only evidence offered.

## Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

[Appeal to emotion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/appeal-to-emotion/) [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Full record

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

[← صور اسرافیل Sur-i Israfil, weekly, front page (Yverdon, 8 March 1909)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sur-i-israfil-yverdon-no-3-1909/) ["When women vote: what will happen if the polling place is located in a millinery shop" (Puck, 1909) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/when-women-vote-millinery-shop-puck-1909/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- ["General Antonio Maceo, the Hero of Peralejo" (Sahm & Co., New York, 1898)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/general-antonio-maceo-hero-of-peralejo-sahm-1898/) (United States · 1898 · Appeal to emotion)
- [Uncle Sam looks at "Cuba" holding a "Cuban Revolutionist" baby (Bartholomew cartoon, April 1898)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/startled-uncle-sam-cuban-revolutionist-baby-bartholomew-1898/) (United States · Apr 1898 · Appeal to emotion)
- ["Handicapped!" (Artists' Suffrage League poster, London, 1909)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/handicapped-artists-suffrage-league-1909/) (United Kingdom · 1909 · Appeal to emotion)
- ["Justice Demands the Vote" (Brighton & Hove Women's Franchise Society, 1909)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/justice-demands-the-vote-brighton-hove-1909/) (United Kingdom · 1909 · Appeal to emotion, Transfer)
- ["In Belgium and yet when she wanted the vote they told her a woman's place was in the home" (cartoon, 1914)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/in-belgium-and-yet-woman-wanted-the-vote-1914/) (United States · 1914 · Appeal to emotion, Whataboutism)
- ["Votes for Mothers!" (The Suffragist, cover, 13 June 1914)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/votes-for-mothers-suffragist-1914/) (United States · Jun 13, 1914 · Appeal to emotion)
- [Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/daddy-what-did-you-do-1915/) (United Kingdom · 1915 · Fear appeal, Appeal to emotion)
- [Enlist](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/enlist-lusitania-1915/) (United States · 1915 · Fear appeal, Appeal to emotion). Content note: A mother and infant drowning in the Lusitania sinking.