How did media portray suffragettes?

Answer 1

The newspapers and other periodicals of the day portrayed suffragettes an "unnatural " women. At a time when women were not even expected to have a political opinion, never mind a voice or a vote . Men were simply aghast. Women were thought to not have the intellectual capacity to comprehend business or politics.anything outside the issues affecting family or the running of the home were unexpected and unwanted. Indeed, many women were catergorized as " hysterical " meaning that some malfunction of their female parts had led to unrealistic thinking and mental instability . Women chained themselves to iron railings in front of offices of politicians , then forcibly removed, somtimes imprisoned and those who went on hunger strikes in prison were forcibly fed with primitive feeding funnels. There were also a segment of the male population who believed the unrest in the female population was fomented by lesbians, who sought not only their own civil rights, but the disruption of the traditional family, with it's absolute paternalistic iron rule of the home.

It was really the world wars, when the male population was decimated and women had to take over their work and manage their own affairs, that smart men began to see the wisdom of allowing women more voice and responsibility outside the home.