Life, 1913-03-06 · page 20 of 72
Life — March 6, 1913 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1910s *Life* magazine page satirizes women's suffrage by imagining that once women gain the vote, "Election Day" will become as elaborate and fashion-focused as the traditional Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue. The top cartoon shows a woman in a car urging the driver faster while her elaborate feathered hat blows away—a visual joke about women prioritizing fashionable display. The text mockingly predicts that voting will transform into a competitive spectacle of expensive gowns and accessories. Women will coordinate "Election hats and Election gowns," wear tailored hats for morning voting and "rich apparel" for afternoon voting, arrive in "decorated motor cars," and even design custom ballots to match their costumes. The satire suggests women voters will reduce politics to fashion competition and social entertainment rather than serious civic participation. This reflects the era's anti-suffrage argument that women were frivolous consumers incapable of serious political engagement. The humor is period-specific—mocking both women's fashion consciousness and anxieties about female voting rights.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“CAN'T YOU GO A LITTLE FASTER, JACK? The Easter Parade HE days of the Easter Parade are numbered, This sapient remark has been made annually for many years, but it meant nothing. Wise ones said, “Oh, women don’t don new hats on Easter Sunday now- adays, as they used to,” and then the shops full of beflowered confections would be transferred to feminine heads, and they'd make an initial ap- pearance on Easter Sunday as always. Wise ones also said, “ The Easter crowd on Fifth Avenue is nothing to what it used to be!" and then, if the sun shines on Easter Sunday, the grand old strect is packed as ever with a millineried multitude. But aside and apart from these con- siderations, the days of the Easter Parade are numbered, because the oc- casion is soon to be supplemented by another Parade Day. As soon as the suffragists have com- pleted a few unfinished details, the franchise will come to women, and then—who doubts it?—Election Day will be Parade Day. It is a foregone conclusion that Election Day will be changed from November to some spring date (not inappropriately, April first). Then Easter hats and Easter cos- tumes will be a forgotten issue, and a whole year’s energies and planning will result in Election hats and Elec- tion gowns. Wide scope will be al- lowed. For those who prefer it, stun- ning morning costumes and smart THE WIND IS KUINING MY PLUMES.” then! Women know the effect of evening costumes, and instead of the horrid horn-tooting, feather-tickling crowds that now make ction night hideous, there will be streets full of people remindful of the audience that emerges after a special opera per- formance. The polling booths will vie in com- fort and luxury with the new ocean liners. Probably the booths wiil be built entirely of glass, so that no de- tail of the voter's costume may be lost upon the waiting ones outside. The ballots will be deckle-edged, hand-painted affairs, and exclusive women will doubtless have individual or personal ballots, as they do Christ- “BEG FOR IT" A WAY SOME IU! tailored hats will be de rigeur for vot- ing before noon. Afternoon balloting will give occa- sion for agrand display of rich apparel that shall sow seeds of envy, hatred and malice in all feminine hearts. And the evening! But who can pic- ture the glories of Election night after women can vote? No closing of the polls at six o'clock NDS HAVE mas cards nowadays. Of, if a woman choose, she can have her ballot de- signed to match her costume. Voting parties will be a popular form of entertainment, when, after a delightful luncheon or dinner, the guests will be taken in decorated motor cars to the polls. Ah, yes, the coming glories of Elec- tion Day will obliterate even the comicbooks.com