---
title: '"A Squelcher for Woman Suffrage" (Puck cover, 6 June 1894)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/squelcher-for-woman-suffrage-puck-1894/
description: A woman in a very wide dress and hat is turned away from a voting booth too narrow for her, while a policeman and election officials look on.
section: Collection
---

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3. "A Squelcher for Woman Suffrage" (Puck cover, 6 June 1894)

[!["A Squelcher for Woman Suffrage", 1894 US cartoon: A woman in a very wide dress and hat is turned away from a voting booth](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/squelcher-for-woman-suffrage-puck-1894.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/squelcher-for-woman-suffrage-puck-1894.jpg)

# "A Squelcher for Woman Suffrage" (Puck cover, 6 June 1894)

A woman in a very wide dress and hat is turned away from a voting booth too narrow for her, while a policeman and election officials look on; the caption asks how she can vote 'when the fashions are so wide, and the voting booths are so narrow.' The tell: a joke about clothing stands in for the question of rights.

Puck ran this cover on 6 June 1894. A woman in a very wide dress and hat is turned away from a voting booth too narrow for her, while a policeman and election officials look on, and the caption asks how she can vote 'when the fashions are so wide, and the voting booths are so narrow.' The booths carry the printed instruction 'Ballots must be prepared in these booths'. A straw man is at work: a joke about clothing stands in for the question of voting rights.

## Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

[Straw man](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/straw-man/)

## Full record

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

[← En posesión de su presa (In Possession of Its Prey)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/en-posesion-de-su-presa-el-diablo-1894/) [Kanpō (Official Gazette), extra no. 3328, p. 8 (Tokyo, 2 August 1894): 宣戦ノ詔勅 (Imperial Rescript declaring war on China) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kanpo-declaration-of-war-on-china-1894/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal, Ad hominem, Straw man)
- [Political caricature. No. 3, The abolition catastrophe. Or the November smash-up](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abolition-catastrophe-1864/) (United States · 1864 · Bandwagon, Name-calling, Straw man). Content note: 1864 Democratic print using a racial slur.
- ["A Female Suffrage Fancy" (Puck, 14 July 1880)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/female-suffrage-fancy-puck-1880/) (United States · Jul 14, 1880 · Straw man). Content note: 1880 satire of women voting, built on gender-reversal jokes, shown as published.
- ["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/) (United States · Apr 28, 1909 · Straw man)
- ["Well, Missy! Heah we is!" (Puck, 1913)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/well-missy-heah-we-is-puck-1913/) (United States · Mar 13, 1913 · Name-calling, Straw man). Content note: 1913 cartoon with racial caricature of Black women and dialect, drawn into the suffrage debate, shown as published.
- ["Making the Polls Attractive to the Anti-Suffragists" (Puck, 20 February 1915)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/making-polls-attractive-to-anti-suffragists-puck-1915/) (United States · Feb 20, 1915 · Straw man)