Suffrage parade in New York City, May 1912
A PART OF SISTERHOOD that I have not yet discussed here a lot (although you may have read a bit about it) is a less tangible and often political sisterhood among women. As the first installment of a much longer discussion I offer the beginnings of my awareness of such a universal sisterhood: Mary Poppins.
I watched Mrs. Banks storm through her house on 17 Cherry Tree Lane singing Sister Suffragette dozens (maybe even a hundred) times before the tape on the cassette finally broke. And while I repeated the lyrics phonetically to myself and whoever else would listen, it wasn’t until a few years later that I actually learned what a suffragette was—mostly thanks to a very clever Halloween costume donned by my neighbor. I was amazed to find out how little it had to do with actual suffering (well, at least in the origins of the word).
And it was a good 10 years after the suffragette costume (and grace à my college education) that I recalled the words of Mrs. Banks with some irony. In the movie, she sings to her nanny, her cook, and her maid about their solidarity as women. And while Mrs. Banks may have believed in their solidarity in theory (like many non-fictional wealthy women of her era), she was probably able to invest herself in the suffrage movement because she never had to lift a finger at home. But she is not alone in her ignorance: The division of class (and race) within the women’s movement has endured for 150 years.
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Glad you brought it up. I expect this thread of sister talk will lengthen and weave around here and there, but for now there have just been a couple of takes on it on TSP network: a song I posted by Nina Simone, and the photography show by Allison Michael Orenstein (which dispelled some stereotypes about just how universal, or not, the term is). Thanks for continuing the conversation.
my pleasure, Margaret. Thanks for the mini road map.
How do you feel about voting for a female candidate for the sake of solidarity regardless of the candidate’s consistency with one’s own views?
The picture with this post reminded me of a paper I wrote this semester about women’s views on voting in the Progressive Era. Before starting the project, I wasn’t really aware of women’s organizations at the time (prior to the 19th amendment, that is) who opposed women’s suffrage -many even after their state legalized it.
For example, the Oklahoma Anti-Suffrage League or the Women Voters Anti-Suffrage Party of NY were two such groups. One article I read suggested that the process of organizing with other women caused them to develop a sense of sisterhood and politicized them at the same time, leading many women to join political parties once the 19th amendment was ratified.
Welcome Chris, I don’t have an easy answer to your question, but I remember seeing a movie that tackled that very subject: ‘Running in High Heels.’ Perhaps you should check it out.
http://www.maryannbreschard.com/running.html