Views about women began to change in the early C20th as they struggled for the right to vote, to obtain education and to work outside of the home. Yet the Catholic Church remained awkward. So the Catholic Women's Suffrage Society was formed in the UK in 1911 and The Irish Catholic Women's Suffrage Association was established in Catholic Ireland in Nov 1915. But I could not find an equivalent society in the USA.
This New York Catholic-school teacher was dismissed from her job for attending the 1912 suffrage parade.
In fact what I DID find in the USA was The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage that was organised in 1911. Its members included wealthy, influential women and Catholic clergymen, including Cardinal James Gibbons who addressed their convention in Washington DC in 1916. "In order to be functional, prosperous and pleasant", Gibbons said, "American society required men and women to operate in separate spheres of influence: public life for men, and domestic life for women". These realms aligned with what were seen as the inherent natural strengths of each sex. Women were nurturers, moral guardians and peacekeepers, presiding over family and the home. [Note that Gibbons was only the second cardinal in American history, and therefore a very significant figure].
So although the Catholic Church in the USA did not take an official position on suffrage, very few of its leaders openly supported it. Would a woman in such a parish risk her good standing in the Catholic Church and pursue her belief in woman’s equality? Might she be refused Holy Communion? Could her husband be humiliated in church circles? They must have been very brave.
In 1903 the American Federation of Labour’s national convention in Boston created Women’s Trade Union League. WTUL elected as president Bostonian Mary Kenney O’Sullivan, an Irish Catholic labour organiser. O’Sullivan’s leadership was influential in persuading working-class men to support the suffrage cause. Committed to improving pay and working conditions for women workers, the WTUL was the coordinating body for other women’s trade unions. The WTUL established a suffrage department in 1908 and urged working women and their husbands to attend suffrage rallies. But did O’Sullivan try to appeal to Catholic women?
In the early C20th, progress towards universal suffrage in the USA seemed very slow. Having failed to secure a federal amendment for equal suffrage, women now campaigned state by state.
Before Woodrow Wilson became President in 1912, he was governor of New Jersey. He wrote a letter to a Vermont newspaper editor about women voting: "I must say very frankly that my personal judgment is strongly against it. I believe that the social changes it would involve would not justify the gains that would be accomplished by it." He may have championed women’s equality later, but the women 100+ years ago had no idea that they were on the verge of victory. They only knew that they were not yet free.
In Jan 1917, Alice Paul and the other women of the National Women's Party met at their head-quarters in Washington DC, to initiate fresh protests at the Federal level. Party members signed up for shifts to hold the banners outside the White House during Woodrow Wilson's presidency, even though the winter was freezing. Their banners said "Mr President what will you do for woman suffrage and liberty?"
Retaliation against the protesters intensified, reaching The Night of Terror in Nov 1917 when authorities sent the arrested women to a local workhouse cum prison. The workhouse superintendent ordered his 40 guards to attack the arrested women. The guards beat women, chained their hands to the cell bars all night, threw women into a dark cell and smashed their heads against an iron bed. Dorothy Day was slammed repeatedly over the back of an iron bench. I mention Day, not only because she was Catholic, but because she was so radicalised by the guards’ action that she later co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement.
In fact what I DID find in the USA was The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage that was organised in 1911. Its members included wealthy, influential women and Catholic clergymen, including Cardinal James Gibbons who addressed their convention in Washington DC in 1916. "In order to be functional, prosperous and pleasant", Gibbons said, "American society required men and women to operate in separate spheres of influence: public life for men, and domestic life for women". These realms aligned with what were seen as the inherent natural strengths of each sex. Women were nurturers, moral guardians and peacekeepers, presiding over family and the home. [Note that Gibbons was only the second cardinal in American history, and therefore a very significant figure].
So although the Catholic Church in the USA did not take an official position on suffrage, very few of its leaders openly supported it. Would a woman in such a parish risk her good standing in the Catholic Church and pursue her belief in woman’s equality? Might she be refused Holy Communion? Could her husband be humiliated in church circles? They must have been very brave.
In 1903 the American Federation of Labour’s national convention in Boston created Women’s Trade Union League. WTUL elected as president Bostonian Mary Kenney O’Sullivan, an Irish Catholic labour organiser. O’Sullivan’s leadership was influential in persuading working-class men to support the suffrage cause. Committed to improving pay and working conditions for women workers, the WTUL was the coordinating body for other women’s trade unions. The WTUL established a suffrage department in 1908 and urged working women and their husbands to attend suffrage rallies. But did O’Sullivan try to appeal to Catholic women?
In the early C20th, progress towards universal suffrage in the USA seemed very slow. Having failed to secure a federal amendment for equal suffrage, women now campaigned state by state.
Before Woodrow Wilson became President in 1912, he was governor of New Jersey. He wrote a letter to a Vermont newspaper editor about women voting: "I must say very frankly that my personal judgment is strongly against it. I believe that the social changes it would involve would not justify the gains that would be accomplished by it." He may have championed women’s equality later, but the women 100+ years ago had no idea that they were on the verge of victory. They only knew that they were not yet free.
In Jan 1917, Alice Paul and the other women of the National Women's Party met at their head-quarters in Washington DC, to initiate fresh protests at the Federal level. Party members signed up for shifts to hold the banners outside the White House during Woodrow Wilson's presidency, even though the winter was freezing. Their banners said "Mr President what will you do for woman suffrage and liberty?"
Retaliation against the protesters intensified, reaching The Night of Terror in Nov 1917 when authorities sent the arrested women to a local workhouse cum prison. The workhouse superintendent ordered his 40 guards to attack the arrested women. The guards beat women, chained their hands to the cell bars all night, threw women into a dark cell and smashed their heads against an iron bed. Dorothy Day was slammed repeatedly over the back of an iron bench. I mention Day, not only because she was Catholic, but because she was so radicalised by the guards’ action that she later co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement.
Suffragists picketing the White House in mid-winter 1917.
Source: Library of Congress.
Source: Library of Congress.
As news spread about their suffering, public sentiment began to sway back in favour of the women. Concurrently, the National American Woman Suffrage Association had continued lobbying for the federal suffrage amendment, saying it would be a measure of goodwill to the women who were aiding the war effort. After the USA finally joined the Allies in WW1, public sentiment swept against the suffragists as traitors for protesting the president in wartime. By summer, the women began to be arrested, released and often arrested again.
And in the new year President Wilson, who previously had opposed universal suffrage, now made a public statement of support for a women's amendment. By Aug 1920, the right for women to vote finally became law.
The Church remained hostile to women’s dreams because, the bishops argued, women’s place was in the home. Their female nature would be debased by such rough masculine activities as voting. In 1930 Pope Pius XI condemned women’s emancipation as undermining the divinely founded obedience of the wife to her husband and a false deflection from her true and sole role as mother and homemaker. American Catholic bishops moved quickly to organise Catholic women in new issues. I wonder what the goals of National Council of Catholic Women Against Liberalism, Socialism and Feminism were.
And in the new year President Wilson, who previously had opposed universal suffrage, now made a public statement of support for a women's amendment. By Aug 1920, the right for women to vote finally became law.
The Church remained hostile to women’s dreams because, the bishops argued, women’s place was in the home. Their female nature would be debased by such rough masculine activities as voting. In 1930 Pope Pius XI condemned women’s emancipation as undermining the divinely founded obedience of the wife to her husband and a false deflection from her true and sole role as mother and homemaker. American Catholic bishops moved quickly to organise Catholic women in new issues. I wonder what the goals of National Council of Catholic Women Against Liberalism, Socialism and Feminism were.
Public speech after the Night of Terror, Washington DC
Nov 1915
Conclusion
The suffrage story reminded women that change happened slowly, even more slowly in Catholic countries apparently. The Church was reluctant to support, or was antagonistic towards women's suffrage. In fact in 1930, ten years after women won the right to vote in the USA, Pope Pius XI (1922-39) condemned women’s liberation, arguing it would produce a false redirection from their true identity as mothers and homemakers. Not until 1945 did Catholic Italy, home of the Vatican, grant women the right to vote. And in other majority-Catholic countries women did not get the vote for ages: in France the vote was granted in 1944 and Belgium in 1948. Conclusion
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14 comments:
Just as well you are not Catholic then Hels and did not have to be obedient to your husband. Hehe, you being obedient to anyone is a funny thought. Interesting post, as always.
Andrew
Even after women won the vote in 1920, the problem in a country with optional voting (like the USA) is that we are not sure what to make of a woman who didn't vote. Was she sick? travelling abroad? disinterested in a particular election? Or did her husband/parish priest forbid her voting?
That’s an interesting point, Hels! So glad to be in a country where the vote is compulsory!
Hello Hels, How often did women (and men, too, for that matter) have to hear that "women's place in in the home, an nowhere else" line? The Catholic author Kate Chopin explored this idea brilliantly in her short 1899 novel The Awakening, which I highly recommend. It's particularly interesting as a psychological study since the (presumably Catholic) main character Edna is not directly political or creative, yet feels smothered by her inescapable role as wife and mother. The background you presented in this post provides a lot of context for the novel, and should be required for all future readers of The Awakening.
--Jim
Sue
I was always certain that a nation cannot have a democracy if it doesn't hear from 100% of its adult citizens (or as close as possible to 100%). If the voting rolls only include whites, males and propertied citizens, then the elections will be totally undemocratic. But more than that:
a] there cannot be elections during the working week because workers cannot afford to lose their salary for a few hours;
b] there have to be ballot boxes in old age homes, hospitals and army barracks for those voters not in their own homes on election day; and
c] postal votes will enable people who won't travel on Sabbath to have their vote counted.
I can only hope when the voting lists were drawn up in 1920, men recorded their wives' names at the Electoral Office with complete honesty.
Parnassus
I have not seen the novel The Awakening, but because it was written in 1899 when all these issues were building and spreading, it will have unmatchable contemporary insight. Histories written in the 1960s and 70s were invaluable, but those modern writers could not have truly known what it was like to an extremely limited life.
My family were all proud that Russia became the first major European nation to give women the vote, in 1917. My grandmother couldn't see the problem that other women faced :)
Bloody Hell This almost did me in . I was frothing at the mouth and spitting chips .My blood pressure went up and I was gnashing my teeth !!!! be careful woman go back to your kitchen and away from your keyboards . You are a health Hazard!!!!
mem
I am normally a peacenik at all costs, and very rarely think of using violence as a punishment, or in retaliation for immoral behaviour. But when the women were gaoled, beaten and starved by their guards for six months, I too was gnashing my teeth :(
The irony of "male guards pulverising women who carried a banner outside the White House regarding men controlling women's behaviour" was not lost on anyone. Even 73 year old Mary Nolan, who was sentenced to a shorter period in consideration of her advanced age, could no longer walk on the day she was released.
It was Domestic violence on an institutional scale .
mem
as long as we remember that the control of women was done for the "most moral of reasons" - to allow women to be nurturers, moral guardians and peacekeepers, presiding over family and the home. And no-one could be as morally concerned for families as the Pope: "voting would undermine the divinely founded obedience of the wife to her husband!"
Lucy Burns was one very brave lady. I would have been less of a risk taker.
Deb
I should have mentioned Lucy Burns in conjunction with Alice Paul, since they both learned their suffragist politics in the UK. This Irish Catholic New Yorker was amazingly energetic re education and voting for women, but I think she was defeated by the Night of Terror and the brutal force feeding in gaol. As soon as the vote was granted to women, she ended her public involvements and worked quietly for the Catholic Church after 1920.
To be an Abolitionist, Suffragist or to support any kind of sea-change in society requires the action of the bravest people: especially in the face of Church or domestic opposition. The world is still not fully enfranchised. Saudi women didn't vote until 2015!
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bazza
Intellectual commitment to the cause was shown through Letters to the Editor, petitions to Parliament, meetings in private homes etc. The pure bravery was seen in parades down main streets, picketing the White House and speaking in Hyde Park to huge crowds.
What an exciting, dangerous time that must have been in our countries. But not in Saudi Arabia - that was simply very dangerous :(
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