The Wasp — 1879 — page 491: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes the legal consequences of the **Diva Ordinance**, a San Francisco law prohibiting women from working in certain professions. Judge Daingerfield declared the ordinance unconstitutional. The cartoon shows a woman standing confrontationally before a seated man. The accompanying text quotes the judge's reasoning: men are licensed to sell beer and play music at any hour, so why exclude women? The law is discriminatory. The caption's dialogue suggests financial hardship resulted from the ordinance's enforcement—"I paid yen only sixteen dollars until now!"—implying women lost income when prohibited from work. The satire mocks the ordinance's hypocrisy: if men could freely pursue these occupations, denying women the same opportunity was arbitrary discrimination based on sex.