Vintage Wisconsin: 1912 Poster Weighs In On Suffrage Referendum

On Nov. 5, 1912, Wisconsin voters — all men — went to the polls to consider a referendum on women’s suffrage.

Suffrage attracted a lot of support but also powerful opposition in Wisconsin, particularly among brewers who feared enfranchised women would bring about the prohibition of alcohol.

This poster from an anti-suffrage group in Watertown claimed that women’s suffrage would “double the irresponsible vote,” posing a menace to “Home, Men’s Employment and All Business!” Since only men could vote, it’s not clear exactly who were the irresponsible parties doubled by giving women the vote. When the votes were counted, Wisconsin men voted women’s suffrage down by a margin of 63-37.

This wasn’t the first time Wisconsin had rejected women’s rights. The state’s first constitution, drafted in 1846, included a provision allowing married women to own property. In most other places, women were property — they couldn’t own it. A wife’s wages, inheritance and other assets legally belonged to her husband.

This and other controversial provisions (outlawing privately owned banks and putting the question of black suffrage up to a vote, for example) led voters to reject the draft constitution, sending delegates back to the drawing board. The second and ultimately approved draft contained no such alarming ideas.

Wisconsin redeemed herself, in a way, by becoming the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment granting national suffrage to women on June 10, 1919.