Content-Type: text/html
@TITLE SINGLE = WOMAN AS CITIZEN: AN IDEOLOGICAL ANALYSISOF THREE
WOMEN'S PUBLICATIONS, 1900-1910
SUBMITTED TO THE ASSOCIATION FOR EDUCATION IN JOURNALISM AND MASS
COMMUNICATION
NATIONAL CONVENTION
HISTORY DIVISION
BY
JANET M. CRAMER
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
APRIL, 1995
@SUBHEAD =
@SUBHEAD = INTRODUCTION
The turn of the 20th century, called the Progressive Era in American
history, was a time of great change for the United States and for American
women. A pervasive national ferment characterized by
industrialization,
urbanization and increased immigration was the backdrop for women's
ongoing
political fight for suffrage, for increased involvement in the workplace
and in the professions, and for transformations within the home. Women
were
redefining their place in society and creating new identities<197>speci
fically, a notion of their citizenship and a reconceptualization of
their
social role and contributions.
This reconceptualization of citizenship and social involvement interfaced
with the prevailing notions of what it meant to be 'woman' in early
20th-century society. Gender is a social construction, dependent on
societal norms and values of a given time. The term <169>gender
construction<170> is used throughout this paper to identify states, ideas,
or assumptions regarding gender<197>ideas that are constructed from
conditions and (pre)dispositions. The notion of 'citizenship' is also a
social construction; women, as well as men, have refined and redefined
the
basis for citizenship depending on sociopolitical conditions and the
norms
and expectations of a given period of history.
This is a case study of how three women's publications, published at the
turn of the 20th century, constructed and/or propagated an ideology of
<169>woman as citizen.<170> Ideology, as used here, is what Rosemary
Hennessey refers to as <169>the array of sense-making practices which
constitute what counts as 'the way things are' in any historical
moment.<170>1 How gender constructions intersected with issues of
class, which is used here to refer to the states created by an unequal
distribution of resources and wealth, is also explored.
Woman's suffrage is here considered the arena in which the notion of
women's citizenship and social identity was defined. The rhetoric of
suffrage is naturally infused with the articulations of the rights and
responsibilities of citizenship and a pronounced faith in the political
process. From the mid-19th century to the early 20th century,
discussions
and attitudes concerning women and the extent of their public and
political
participation ultimately interfaced with the positions and perspectives
related to woman's suffrage. In addition, the suffrage movement
contained
the conflicts, personalities and strategies that illuminated not only
ideas
about woman, but also ideas about class.
@SUBHEAD = CULTURE, IDEOLOGY AND THE MEDIA
The arguments for and against suffrage necessarily contained the
discourse related to citizenship. Using John Pauly's definition of a
text as <169>any transcription that fixes human action for contemplation
and interpretation,<170> the term <169>discourse,<170> in this study,
refers to both the constellation of various texts and the notions
contained
within those texts.2 ETexts (in this study the contents of the
three women's publications) comprise the discursive terrain of words and
images that presuppose a set of shared assumptions between the reader
and
the producer. Critical linguist Gunther Kress defines discourse as the
set
of possible statements about a given area, saying that discourses
<169>define, describe and delimit what it is possible to say and not
possible to say . . . with respect to the area of concern.<170>3
The three publications were examined within the cultural fabric of the
early 20th century, in an attempt to accomplish what journalism
historian
David Paul Nord calls <169>cultural history<170><197>the intersection
of
the history of human thought and the history of human action. Cultural
historians ask, <169>What if reality itself is constructed in human
consciousness and human discourse?<170> The cultural historian seeks to
understand the <169>collective consciousness<170> of a given group of
people and reads meanings from texts within the framework of the social
and
economic contexts in which texts were created.4
Stuart Hall has written that <169>the mass media are more and more
responsible for providing the basis on which groups and classes construct
an 'image' of the lives, meanings, practices and values [that] can be
coherently grasped as a 'whole'.<170>5 This construction of what
Hall refers to as <169>social knowledge<170> or <169>social
imagery<170>
occurs within a mass-mediated cultural sphere. The women's
publications
studied here sought to convey to women this social knowledge in a way
the
mainstream media of their day did not. Although these publications
could
not be considered mass media<197>their circulation was too
small and
specialized<197>they do provide a unique opportunity to analyze the
ideology of the movements they represented and hence the notions of
<169>woman<170> and <169>citizenship<170> they propagated or promoted.
Although this study derives from the work of cultural studies, specifically
critical cultural studies, the conceptual framework is what Hennessey
refers to as <169>materialist feminism.<170>6 Materialist
feminism
has evolved from critical Marxist theory, retaining the basic tenets
of
economic determinism and class conflict, while adding the consideration
of
patriarchal oppression and the devaluation of women, thereby making it
more
appropriate for feminist studies. Within materialist feminism, gender
becomes a category of analysis, with special attention to the
intersection
of gender with class, race, and other economic and social realities.
The materialist framework of this study seeks to explicate the reflections
of ideological values, class relations and social power in a facet of
culture<197>the media. Marxists contend that media are not merely
carriers
of ideology that manipulate and indoctrinate; they shape people's very
idea
of themselves and the world.7 A key concept to this exploration is
Antonio Gramsci's notion of hegemony<197>the process whereby a cultural
'common sense' is produced. Hegemony is manifest in the general
notions
people of any culture have about the way things should be; it is a
dominant
world-view, often culturally expressed and discursively articulated.
Gramsci wrote about <169>how the ideological structure of a dominant
class
is actually organized,<170> concentrating on the press as its
<169>most
prominent and dynamic part.<170>8 Performing a materialist
feminist
ideological critique of media, therefore, requires a <169>mode of
reading
that recognizes the various interests and discursive constructions of
the
social,<170>9 with special emphasis on gender and class
distinctions
as portrayed and propagated through the media.
As of this writing, there has been no critical cultural analysis of women's
publications produced around the turn of the 20th century. Studies of the
suffrage press have been descriptive treatments within a functional
and/or
social movement theoretical framework, leaving important questions
about
ideology and discourse unexplored.10 The Courant, one
of the
publications chosen for this study, has been read for its constructions of
the notion of woman; however, in her study, Georgia NeSmith does not
explore how class realities may have contributed to or intersected with
club women's notions of themselves.11 Ann Schofield has studied
union journals and how they framed the <169>woman
question,<170>12
but it is not a study of women's publications<197>of the way women
themselves formed and framed their role and communicated this identity to
each other. It is a study of how 'others' have constructed women's
image in
the media, as is Angela McRobbie's critical cultural analysis of the con
structions of femininity in a contemporary British
publication.13 By
and large, limited attention has been given women's publications in
history, especially the ideological dimension of such publications, and
the
implications of the intersections of class and gender identity.
@SUBHEAD = LOCATING SITES OF WOMEN'S DISCOURSE
The Woman's Tribune (1900-1909), The Courant
(1900-1911), and The Socialist Woman (1907-1908;
renamed The Progressive Woman in 1909) were
chosen
for study because they uniquely and particularly provide the
opportunity
for studying the discourse related to women's citizenship and class
identity.
The Woman's Tribune targeted suffragists and sought to
be the unofficial voice and connection to the suffrage movement.
Editor and
publisher Clara Bewick Colby wrote that she wanted her publication to be
the most valuable and important suffrage publication, yet she had no
official ties to the national suffrage organizations. Though popular, with
the highest circulation of any other suffrage paper, it was still
considered the <169>number two<170> publication to the National American
Woman Suffrage Association's official organ, the
Woman's
Journal.14 For this reason, perhaps, Colby
strived
to make the paper acceptable for general circulation. She included
non-suffrage news and considered men, as well as women, part of her
audience.15 Colby's freelance status, her efforts toward wider
circulation with a more varied content than her suffrage press
competitors,
and her consciousness regarding the importance of the press in women's
lives all point to the Tribune's importance for this study.
The second publication, The Courant, was published in St. Paul,
Minnesota, by and for the Midwest chapter of the General Federation of
Women's clubs. Most of its content was devoted to descriptions of
women's
club work, other business and educational pursuits. The Federation of
Women's Clubs was established in 1890, bringing together 200 clubs
representing 20,000 women with various reform agendae including labor laws,
education, sanitation, and other social and political issues. By 1904,
there were 45 state federations with a combined membership of 300,000,
and
971 individual clubs.16 Women's clubs provided many women with
their first foray into public life; therefore, the question of suffrage
for
the audiences of their publications seems particularly germane.
Furthermore, women who belonged to these clubs were wealthy and considered
<169>respectable.<170> The Federation had evolved from the study-club
movement, and those educational, cultural roots continued to flavor the
methods and priorities of the club movement. Supported by advertisers
and
subscribers, The Courant was financially stable by
1904.17
Club women were shareholders in The Courant Company, sat on its
board of directors, and were frequent contributors as well as readers.
It
is, therefore, an appropriate publication for studying the
constructions of
woman's citizen identity, particularly among middle to upper class women
in the Midwest.
The third publication, The Socialist Woman, presented
the ideals and goals of the National Socialist Party by and for women
of
the party. Its political content, albeit controversial, nevertheless
intersected with the crucial question of its time concerning politics and
women: suffrage. The Socialist Woman was published as a
monthly
magazine beginning in June, 1907, in Chicago, Illinois. The editor was
Josephine Conger-Kaneko, a graduate of Missouri's socialist Ruskin
College,
and a former columnist for the Appeal to Reason, a
socialist paper published by J.A. Wayland in Kansas City,
Missouri.18 The Socialist Woman was intended to
educate women about socialism, leading them <169>to accept socialism as
the
one and only solution to the problems that crowd . . . upon their homes
and their families. . . .<170>19 ESocialist women frequently
allied themselves with the causes and concerns of working women. Revolt
against their deplorable working conditions spawned women's union
organization and involvement. This union activity and a working woman's
experience of societal disapproval raised her consciousness to a level
of
discerning sophistication that her upper and middle class sisters
might
never have realized. Women in the labor movement began to understand
the
roots of oppression, specifically economic subjugation and the
gendered
aspect of that reality. Labor unions offered hope to the oppressed
working
woman, as did the socialist and suffrage movements; however, the
socialist
platform presented political and ideological alternatives to the
woman's
suffrage movement. Socialists were especially able to articulate the
finer
points of class distinction in explaining women's struggles in
society,
adding notions of capitalism and bourgeois oppression to the
yet-undefined
patriarchical suppression of women. With its emphasis on politics,
women's
advancement and freedom, and its intended working-class readership,
The
Socialist Woman provides an appropriate vehicle for examining the
discourse related to woman's citizenship for women of the working class
and
of alternate political persuasion.
@SUBHEAD = METHODOLOGY: DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS AS IDEOLOGY
By examining the constructions of gender and class in these publications
and observing a body of instances that create a field of meaning, this
research was intended to uncover the ideological nature of these three
publications. Discourse analysis is a method that studies not only the
text, but also the unspoken underpinnings of that text<197>that is, it
seeks to uncover the codes, constructions, cultural assumptions,
connotations, and ideological underpinnings embedded in the text. Lawrence
Grossberg describes this as a process of <169>identifying
correspondences
between the workings of a given text and the social structures of
experience.<170>20 The analysis focuses on the construction of
social positions or identities and examines <169>how different
practices,
meanings, and identities are articulated together.<170>21 The
researcher asks, <169>What are the interpretations of meaning and value
created in the media and what is the relation to the rest of
life.<170>22 It also involves, as Pauly suggests, identifying
the
recurring patterns in discourse<197>the repetition of certain themes,
phrases, rhetoric, and so on.23 The methods used here are
informed
by theories developed by structuralists and post-structuralists in
linguistic scholarship,24 as well as by concepts derived from
critical cultural studies.
Stuart Hall claims that ideology may be located in what Louis Althusser
defined as the <169>systems of representation<170> through and
<169>within
which people live the imaginary relation to their real conditions of
existence.<170>25 According to Hall, these ideological systems of
representation may be uncovered through an analysis of discursive
practices. Hall suggests an analysis of the text that seeks to uncover an
unspoken pre-defined terrain, a <169>field of meanings,<170> which,
because
of its unconscious and pervasive quality, contains the real seeds of
ideological hegemony.<170>26
Michel Foucault, a post-Marxist poststructuralist, refers to
<169>discursive formations<170> as <169>conceptual frameworks which
allow
some modes of thought and deny others.<170>27 These discursive
formations are the arenas for discourse; that is, they are a set of
assumed<197>possibly unconscious<197>rules regarding what can be written,
thought and acted upon in a particular field. In this study, it was
supposed that <169>woman's citizenship<170> was a discursive formation,
that there were predetermined rules and limits to the discourse that
could
occur around this gender identity.
Incorporating Foucalt's ideas of <169>discursive formations<170> and Hall's
notion of a <169>field of meanings,<170> each publication was read closely
to discern constructions of woman as citizen. In order to locate
gender-specific discourses related to citizenship, four categories were
selected that relate to what historians have identified as the dominant
ideologies for women during this period: woman as mother; woman as
morally
superior; woman as altruistic; and woman as fundamentally equal to man
by
natural or divine right.28
In addition, references to class difference were noted. That is, references
to working-class women or bourgeois women, or arguments that based the
need for suffrage on the conditions of class, were labeled and
categorized.
In addition, any constructions or definitions of women in the public
sphere (other than those used as arguments for suffrage) were recorded.
The following are examples of each type of argument.
Woman as mother:
@QUOTE = <169>If any one . . . is entitled to vote, is it not the devoted
mother who brings the boy into life and guards and nurtures him and
shapes
his character and directs his thought?29
Woman as Morally Superior:
@QUOTE = <169>[T]here can be no doubt that the participation of women in
our public affairs has had a most elevating influence.<170>30
Woman as Altruistic:
@QUOTE = <169>In what women . . . can inspire men to do through direct
stimulus and by transmitting to them stronger intellects, more awakened
souls, and a truer patriotism, lies the hope of humanity.<170>31
Woman as Fundamentally Equal to Man:
@QUOTE = <169>It is your duty to demand an equal right to work for God and
humanity as your husband and brother works. . . .<170>32
Approximately thirty issues from each publication over the ten-year time
period of 1900-1910 were studied. For each publication, only articles
related to suffrage or that distinctly identified their purpose as
defining
woman's role were read.33 The purpose of selecting a ten-year span
was to identify whether shifts in argument and rationale may have occurred
within a publication, and to ascertain the range of discourse related to
woman's identity as citizen. Content was compared across publications
and
within publications over time to answer these research questions for
each
publication:
1. What was the range and tenor of the discourse regarding woman as citizen
with respect to the gender constructions defined above as mother,
altruistic, morally superior, and equal to men?
2. Were there different constructions of the notion of woman as citizen
other than the four predominant ideologies of mother,
altruistic,
morally superior, or as equal to men?
3. Were issues of class difference acknowledged or articulated? If so, what
were the distinctions, constructions and representations of upper, middle
and lower class women?
4. Were the representations of women the same in all three publications?
As presupposed definitions created by the culture and conditions in the
first decade of the 20th century, it was expected that the four gender
constructions would be present in all publications. Further, differences
in
how gender was defined were expected to correspond to, and differ by,
class status. This expectation is based on Hall's observation that
language
usage reflects class structures within a capitalist society<197>that
<169>it will be dependent on the nature of the social relations in which
it
is embedded, the manner in which its users are socially organized
together, [and] the social and material contexts in which it is
employed.<170>34
Employing discourse analysis and a reading of ideology within the framework
of poststructuralist materialist feminism accomplishes the main purpose of
this study: examining the role of women's media in articulating and
defining women's identity to ascertain the discursive constructions of the
ideology of <169>woman as citizen<170> and whether these constructions
transcended class boundaries.
@SUBHEAD = DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS OF WOMAN AS CITIZEN
In general, in response to the four research questions stated above, it was
found that, in response to question four, even though the primary
discursive arena remained the same, the representations of these
constructions of women differed in the Woman's Tribune,
The Courant, and The Socialist Woman. That is, the
discourse
found in the three women's publications conformed to the predominant
ideologies that historians have identified for the period<197>woman as
mother; woman as morally superior; woman as altruistic; and woman as
equal
to man<197>but each publication presented these constructions in a
distinct
fashion. Regarding question two, an alternative construction of woman as
citizen was found in only one publication<197>The Socialist
Woman.
The Socialist Woman presented a distinctly different image and
set
of priorities regarding women's citizenship from that of the other two
publications, and although some differences were expected, this
publication
revealed a greater departure from prevailing discourses than expected. In
response to question three, it was found that, because of these
differences
between publications, and the nature of the discourse itself, the gender
constructions appear to be related to class. This analysis, therefore,
not
only identifies the discursive constructions of woman, but also links
these
constructions to the social and economic arrangements they support.
@BODY BOLD = CONSTRUCTIONS OF WOMAN AS CITIZEN
@BODY ITALIC = Woman's Tribune
The content of the Woman's Tribune regarding the suffrage question
conformed to the four categories, with varying degrees of weight. The
prevailing argument was based on woman's natural right to vote<197>her
essential equality with men. In spite of an occasional vehement argument
for suffrage, the tone of the Tribune's content was restrained
and
the articulate, 'newsy' articles addressed the reader as mature,
educated,
broad-minded<197>concerned not only about achieving suffrage, but also
abou
t the range of new concerns spawned by the evolving industrialist,
urban
age. Overall, the four categories constituted the majority of
discourse
concerning woman's right to vote, and no one construction was
overwhelmingly predominant.
@BODY ITALIC = The Courant
The image and expectations of woman as a voting citizen are not
clear in the pages of The Courant, which was primarily,
and
admittedly, ambivalent on the issue of suffrage and reflected the
overall
uncertainty of the Federation of Women's Clubs on the question. Very
few
(less than five) references to suffrage were found from 1899-1903.
There
were, however, references to woman's ideal role, as perceived by club
women. When they did appear, the suffrage positions in The
Courant
centered on the value of mothers as voters and woman's fundamental
equality
with man. The two constructions of woman's citizenship as voter
least frequent in The Courant were altruism and moral
superiority. This, however, stands in sharp contradiction to the images
club women were creating for themselves. That is, club women most
frequently justified their involvement in club work<197>and characterized
that work<197>as altruistic and morally rich service to humanity. The
editors did not consistently link that service, however, with advocacy
for
the opportunity to vote. The Courant woman's civic identity
was
tied to her love of home and children. <169>True life is
altruistic,<170> a
1903 article reads. <169>It believes in self-culture and self-blessing,
but only that it may . . . better equip us as wives and mothers and
members
of society.<170>35
By 1909, club women were willing to articulate the ways they felt equal to
men and specially enabled as mothers for the good of society, but they
could not find a way to translate these beliefs into suffrage advocacy,
a
position Lavinia Dock criticized as <169>cowardly,<170> as she
confronted
club women's fear of <169>false public opinion.<170>36
Indeed, a concern about propriety is evident in the content of The
Courant. There were occasional references to a fear of appearing
<169>manly,<170> receiving public censure, and even private rebuke from
one's husband. Any favorable references to suffrage were made usually
because the cause was sanctioned by some well-respected authority, such
as
First Lady Helen Taft, Florence Nightingale, or Governor John A.
Johnson of
Minnesota.37
By 1909, modest pro-suffrage <169>arguments<170> began to appear in The
Courant, such as an article entitled <169>Woman as Citizen<170> that
articulated the club women's actions and priorities as
<169>citizen<170>
behavior and tied those endeavors to the right to vote: <169>The
trouble is
that while we have achieved the form and semblance of the citizen, we have
not realized citizenship . . . which is the working combination of
constitutional powers with the obligation to exercise such power. . . .<1
70>38
@BODY ITALIC = The Socialist Woman
No gentility or reserve was observed in The Socialist
Woman editor's position on suffrage. This was because Josephine
Conger-Kaneko promoted socialism and suffrage simultaneously and for the
same reason: emancipation of women. The suffrage question received
more
coverage in The Socialist Woman, both in number of
issues and length of articles, than in either The Courant or the
Woman's Tribune. The first issue of The Socialist Woman
was
published in June, 1907; the first suffrage article appeared in
November of
that year, and then, with the exception of five months, every month
thereafter until December, 1909. Moreover, two <169>suffrage numbers<170>
were published. Certainly, the overtly political tone and raison
d'etre of The Socialist Woman linked it with the suffrage issue.
The terrain on which socialists fought was political; if women were to
have
any strength in society, in political reforms, and in achieving equality,
they must also have the franchise.
The four constructions of woman as citizen were more difficult to discern
in The Socialist Woman. Even though references were made to
woman's
role as mother and woman's essential equality with men, the rhetoric
differed considerably from that found in the other two publications. For
instance, the other two publications invoked attractive and favorable
connections between motherhood and citizenship or suffrage advocacy.
Conger-Kaneko, however, was sarcastic in her praise when she wrote,
<169>Sacred motherhood! Divine motherhood! Be-au-ti-ful motherhood! I know
a voter so chivalrous . . . he would not for a moment entertain the
idea of
the mother of his brood of six voting. . . . Sacred motherhood!
No!<170>39 The socialist woman's equality with man was presented as
a desired state concurrent with economic reforms: <170>When the full
realization of all this freedom comes, then, and then only, will she stand
as the equal of man<197>who shall also have achieved economic freedom
from
his kind.<170>40
The constructions of woman as altruistic and morally superior were also
articulated differently. The reader of The Socialist
Woman
(and The Progressive Woman) was frequently instructed to put
her own
emancipation above other concerns and to fight for the ballot on the basis
of her socially and politically impoverished condition. The vote was not
presented as a tool for altruistic service<197>the vote meant freedom
and
power, especially the opportunity to effect revolutionary change that
would
enhance women's conditions.41
The morally superior construction, as a rationale for the right to vote,
was not found in the newspaper issues examined. Although women
criticized
men as a voting group, they did not see themselves as being able to
effect,
on a moral plane, any higher standards. For example, in an article by
Conger-Kaneko entitled <169>Woman's Intelligent Vote Will Abolish the
Liquor Traffic,<170> the argument is not that women will impose higher
moral standards through the ballot; rather, it is a diatribe against the
inequality of a system that denies a woman the opportunity to express
an
opinion through the vote on a matter that affects her intimately,
particularly if she is married to a <169>drunken husband.<170>42
Conger-Kaneko's primary argument is equality and economic revolution,
not
the necessity of women's moral imposition.43
Woman as mother and woman as equal to man did appear in The Socialist
Woman, but as mentioned earlier, the articulations of these
positions
are distinct from those in The Courant or the Woman's
Tribune. Equality with men was not strongly asserted; in
fact, a particularly strong article in the April, 1908, issue called
men
<169>indolent<170> and <169>politically stupid.<170>44 The
construction of women as equal to men would thus seem distinctly
unattractive. Most significant, however, is the criticism of the inequality
of capitalist society. Under the capitalist system, men themselves could
not be equal to each other, so how could women ever be equal with men?
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, herself, asserted, <169>It is impossible to have
'equal rights for all' under our present
competitive system.<170>45 Lena Morrow Lewis explored this
perspective in the February, 1908, issue, calling the ballot a <169>social
necessity<170> rather than a natural right.46
With respect to the woman as mother construction, some articles evoked
images of hearth and home but portrayed the home as slave quarters, with
the husband the tyrannical master. Still, arguments in The
Socialist
Woman occasionally invoked the prevailing notion of woman as
mother.
Arguments were frequently tailored toward mothers or women who worked
at
home, not as actual readers, but as <169>states.<170> In other words,
articles in The Socialist Woman referred to the state of
motherhood
or homemaker as a construction of gender to which all readers could
relate,
even if they were wage earners. In one article, the two were combined into
one <169>working class<170>: <169>There are two great bodies of women in
the working class, the mothers engaged in keeping the home and the
women
actually employed in the factories and shops.<170>47 EThe
suffrage
could be seen as a benefit to both; it would benefit mothers by
enabling
them to enact reforms that would improve conditions for their
children, and
it would benefit wage-earning women by improving conditions in the
workplace.
@BODY BOLD = ALTERNATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS OF WOMAN AS CITIZEN
No other representations were found of women<197>particularly of the ideal
voting woman<197>in the pages of the Woman's
Tribune or
The Courant. Only The Socialist
Woman
offered another construction of woman as citizen, namely, woman as
independent revolutionary.
There was a much more defiant and contentious tone to the articles in
The Socialist Woman. Statements were heavily weighted in favor of
suffrage as a means of reform and a way to alleviate the burdens of
the
working class. In addition, lines were often drawn tightly between
working
women and upper class women, and between men and women, even socialist
men.
The reader of The Socialist Woman was often presented with
pugnacious statements regarding men, the Socialist Party, and upper class
women. Other articles attacked the <169>bourgeois<170> suffrage
movement
and the Federation of Women's Clubs. Contributors to the magazine
frequently portrayed working class women in a unique double oppression:
They were disfranchised as women and mistreated as workers.
Furthermore,
these women could not rely on any other protector. The writers felt
abandoned by their party and found themselves on an ideological plane
different from that of other suffragists.48
Although men were criticized in The Courant and the Woman's
Tribune, middle and upper class women criticized men voters for not
having the high moral standards women voters would have. Socialist women
criticized the entire capitalist system in which men participated.
They did
not wish to <169>elevate<170> men or the body of voters; they wanted
full-scale reform. This perspective seems entirely linked to the class
status of the readers of The Socialist Woman as compared to the
other two publications. In addition, socialist women sought their power
in
relative isolation. While club women may have seen the powerful
political
echelon as potential allies, and readers of the Woman's Tribune
may
have rested comfortably in the notion of shared equality with men and
working side-by-side as partners, socialist women found themselves in an
agitated, separate realm.
Some historians of the period claim that socialist women first advocated
for socialism and then believed this would bring about the
ballot<197>that
the ballot meant nothing without the large scale political reform
socialist
women desired. These arguments were presented in The Socialist
Woman, but in equal measure with strong admonitions to work for the
ballot and the revolution and not wait for one to bring about
the
other. Articles repeatedly encouraged socialist women to enter and
transform suffrage organizations, or to educate women not only to the need
for the vote but also to the importance of using that vote to bring
about a
socialist government.49
While most suffrage advocates saw the suffrage as a goal in itself,
socialist women saw its advantage as a tool to achieve their reforms.
Educating women to vote also meant educating them to vote for socialism.
While this was not a gender construction, per se, it did present an
image
of the woman citizen as revolutionary. What The Socialist Woman
seemed to convey was that the woman who earned the right to vote<197>who
was an enfranchised citizen of the United States<197>would also be a
socialist. Frequently, articles in The Socialist Woman referred to
the <169>potential suffragist converts,<170> or to winning women over
to
gain the ballot and, in the process, teaching them what to vote for.
In a
plea to the participants of the Socialist National Convention, a
writer
made this threat: <169>If you do not champion the woman's cause . . .
then
the women will flock to those who are willing to help them. . . . By
making
the woman's cause your own you not only prove your loyalty to the
exploited and oppressed, you also win over to Socialism thousands of women.
. . .<170>50
In addition to promoting full-scale sociopolitical reform, the other
strategy apparent in the content of The Socialist Woman was
conversion of the mainstream suffrage movement. Socialist women and working
women believed the suffrage movement to be bourgeois and essentially
unresponsive to their needs. Twice, in 1908, The Socialist Woman
articles and editorials encouraged working women to join existing
suffrage
organizations primarily for the purposes of gaining influence. For
example,
one editorial said, <169>The first thing is to get women into the locals,
and to spread the socialist teaching among them by any method that
gets
results. . . . [T]hese socialist women would join existing suffrage
bodies,
and in such numbers as to control them, if
possible.<170>51
In a 1907 article, author Josephine R. Cole proposed that socialist women
enter the suffrage movement, not only for the ultimate goal of
suffrage,
but also to convert the women in the movement to socialist ideals,
making
it <169>no longer a bourgeois movement, but a working-class
movement.<170>
@BODY BOLD = CONSTRUCTIONS AND MATERIALITY<197>CLASS CONSIDERATIONS
@BODY ITALIC = Woman's Tribune
References to women as property owners and taxpayers as a rationale for
suffrage were found in the Woman's Tribune, although
this was not directly identified as a class concern. Some of these
passages
did not suggest that taxpaying or property ownership assured a higher
class woman voter; rather, they simply indicated that the taxpaying
argument was effective.