"Votes for Mothers!" (The Suffragist, cover, 13 June 1914)
A worn mother holds a small child on a crowded city street while another child plays with a cat beside an overflowing trash can. The tell: the picture shows a mother's burden in her own neighbourhood and leaves the link to the vote to the title.
This drawing was made for the cover of The Suffragist, the weekly of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage in Washington, D.C., which appeared on 13 June 1914. It aimed to persuade the US public to support the vote. A worn mother holds a small child on a crowded city street while another child plays with a cat beside an overflowing trash can, under the title "Votes for Mothers!". It is an appeal to emotion: the picture shows a mother's burden in her own neighbourhood and leaves the link to the vote to the title, so pity and concern do the work that an argument would otherwise do.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- June 13, 1914
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (The Suffragist, Washington, D.C.)
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Movement
- Regime
- Wilson Administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Gender and suffrage, Elections and party politics
- Event
- US Woman Suffrage Campaign
- Regime
- Wilson administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- 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 1914, before 1931); LoC: no known restrictions on publication
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LCCN 2020633544. "Votes for Mothers!" (The Suffragist, cover, 13 June 1914)
