Anti-Suffrage Decorated Drinking Flask

We have an anti-suffrage decorated pewter drinking flask in our Women's Suffrage Collection.

It dates to between 1910 and 1914, and is decorated on its lid with the words "IT'S AN ABOMINATION TO ALL MEN".

On the main body of the flask is a caricature image of a suffragette with the words "I DEMAND THE VOTE!" coming from her mouth. This sort of cartoon is typical of anti-suffrage propaganda at the time, which frequently featured exaggerated drawings of suffrage campaigners. These drawings implied or sometimes made explicit the idea that women who were suffrage campaigners were doing so because they were too unattractive to get married, and were therefore bitter at men.

The idea that women having the right to vote would be an abomination to men was often derived from religious or other notions of particular roles ordained for men and women.