Fashion and Politics in the US Women's Suffrage Movement

Claire Delahaye delivered a presentation on the intersection of fashion and politics in the US women’s suffrage movement of the early twentieth century at the WESWWHN Annual Conference on Women and Fashion in Bath on 12 October 2024. This paper argued that fashion provides a valuable lens for examining various aspects of the US women’s suffrage movement, particularly through the politicization of dress and the aestheticization of politics. It explored the relationship between suffragists’ clothing choices and their political practices, focusing on what they wore during public political activities. Rather than serving merely as a symbol, suffragists’ attire functioned as a tangible, practical tool – an essential element of their daily political operations and campaigning efforts.

Indeed, suffragists strategically selected clothing that was both functional and respectable, recognizing that their success in outdoor activities depended on suitable attire. Comfort, warmth, and freedom of movement were essential to the experiences of field workers. As suffragists carried out their work in the streets, their clothing and accessories needed to accommodate practical needs, providing space to carry essential materials for their activities. Newspapers noted the importance of pockets for suffragists, while bags, purses, and satchels became crucial for storing items needed for political work. [1] In the 1910s, the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s official newspaper The Woman’s Journal coordinated an organized sale force and published articles and letters encouraging women throughout the nation “to order the Journal’s trademark yellow and black canvas “newsy bags” and take to the streets.” [2]

Sartorial choices played a significant role for suffrage leaders, who urged women to wear specific clothing to project an idealized vision of female citizenship, effectively imposing dress requirements on marchers. [3] This authoritative stance underscored how fashion functioned as a tool of collective discipline, revealing complex power dynamics within the movement – a particularly along lines of race and class. Prescriptive guidelines for parade attire often excluded women with limited financial means, reinforcing class tensions among suffragists. In response, some activists used their clothing as a form of resistance, expressing their dissatisfaction with what they saw as an infringement on their personal freedom by suffrage leaders.

 

The different accessories (hats, pennants) women were asked to wear for parades.

Moreover, for some suffragists, clothing served as a subtle yet powerful site of resistance. Pockets, in particular, symbolized both intimacy and political defiance, providing women with a space they controlled. These small, personal compartments held everyday items that could unexpectedly be repurposed as political tools, reinforcing the intersection of fashion and activism. For example, when suffrage leader Alice Paul arrived at the workhouse after being arrested in 1917, she had a volume of Robert Browning in the pocket of her coat. When prison matrons refused to open the windows, Paul hurled her book through the glass, breaking a pane to let in fresh air. [4] This anecdote highlights how clothing functioned as a form of concealment, enabling women to discreetly carry everyday objects that could be transformed into tools for direct political action.

When Congress met for its last session on December 4, 1916, President Wilson delivered a message that ignored the subject of women’s suffrage. Knowing this in advance, the suffragists prepared a sensationalist action. They unrolled a large banner during the president’s speech, asking for suffrage. Suffragist Mabel Vernon had been given the difficult task of bringing the big banner of yellow sateen inside. She pinned it to her skirt, under the enveloping cape she wore. [5] 

When the National Woman’s Party picketed the White House in the summer of 1917, mobs started attacking them. Suffragists then carried their banners “inside their sweaters and hats, in sewing bags, or pinned them, folded in newspapers or magazines, under their skirts. One picket was followed by crowds who caught a gleam of yellow at the hem of her gown.” [6] In this instance, clothes were used to conceal banners, as the “pickets distributed the banners in different parts of their clothes,” showing that pieces of clothing play a specific role in activism. In the same manner, when they started “Watchfires of Freedom” on the White House pavement, they hid “logs under coats and capes” to hide them from the policemen. [7]

These examples show that some suffragists politicized their clothing in surprising and cunning ways. They even reversed the stigmas attached to wearing prison clothes and exploited it to shock US public opinion. Indeed, after National Woman’s Party members were arrested and imprisoned, they replicated the prison clothes to tour the country aboard the “prison special.” [8]

 

Lucy Branham in Prison Dress  

The relationship between suffragists’ clothing practices and political strategies underscores both the politics of material culture and the material culture of politics. Suffragists viewed dress as a crucial tool in their activism, yet it also exposed ideological divisions and class tensions. The recommendations and requirements set by suffrage organizations highlighted the friction between clothing as a means of personal self-expression, a marker of collective political identity, and an instrument of organizational discipline. 

Notes

[1] “Plenty of Pockets in Suffragette Suit,” New York Times, October 10, 1910, p. 5; “Dame Fashion Suffragist,” New-York Tribune, March 6, 1913, p. 7.

[2] Margaret Finnegan, Selling Suffrage : Consumer Culture & Votes for Women, New York, Columbia University Press, 1999, p. 148.

[3] “Mrs. Foster Attends Suffrage Parade,” Maryland Suffrage News, November 16, 1912, p. 132.

[4] Inez Irwin, The Story of the Woman’s Party, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1921, p. 285.

[5] Irwin, p. 180-183.

[6] Irwin, p. 233.

[7] Irwin, p. 470.

[8] Katherine Feo Kelly, “Performing Prison: Dress, Modernity, and the Radical Suffrage Body,” Fashion Theory no. 15, vol. 3 (2011): 299–321. doi:10.2752/175174111X13028583328801.

Picture Credits:-

Lucy Branham in prison dress - Harris & Ewing, 1919, Library of Congress, No known restrictions on publication. (There are no known restrictions on photographs by Harris & Ewing.)  

The different accessories women (hats, pennants) women were asked to wear for parades -  Members of the Woman Suffrage Association of Mongomery and Dayton County, 27 August 1912, public domain in the country of origin (US).