---
title: '"When women vote: what will happen if the polling place is located in a millinery shop" (Puck, 1909)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/when-women-vote-millinery-shop-puck-1909/
description: Women crowd a hat shop, trying on hats, with a small inset of women entering the shop door; the title imagines a polling place there.
section: Collection
---

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[!["When women vote: what will happen if the polling place, 1909 US cartoon: Women crowd a hat shop, trying on hats](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/when-women-vote-millinery-shop-puck-1909.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/when-women-vote-millinery-shop-puck-1909.jpg)

# "When women vote: what will happen if the polling place is located in a millinery shop" (Puck, 1909)

Women crowd a hat shop, trying on hats, with a small inset of women entering the shop door; the title imagines a polling place there. The tell: it argues against women voting by picturing women who would not take the ballot seriously, a claim no suffrage speaker made.

A cartoon published in Puck, New York, on 28 April 1909, with the engraving signed by Gordon Grant, during the American woman suffrage campaign. It is aimed at the domestic public and argues against women voting. The title imagines a polling place in a millinery shop, and women crowd a hat shop trying on hats, with a small inset of women entering at the door. The tagged technique is Straw man: the cartoon pictures women who would not take the ballot seriously, a position it attributes to women voters but which the record of suffrage speakers does not show.

## 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

[← "Shall Women Vote?" (Puck centerfold, 31 March 1909)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/shall-women-vote-puck-1909/) [Kalem cartoon of Abdulhamid II and his secretary ("Il y a mis du temps, mais il a compris") →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kalem-abdulhamid-severed-head-cartoon-1909/)

## 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.
- ["A Squelcher for Woman Suffrage" (Puck cover, 6 June 1894)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/squelcher-for-woman-suffrage-puck-1894/) (United States · Jun 6, 1894 · 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)