Sarah Davis

Satire, quotation, and womens suffrage;

Alice Duer Millers process and success.
HIST-1700-032-F15
12/9/2015

From 1913 to 1917 a column in the New York Tribune belonged to a witty, satirical,
suffragist author by the name of Alice Duer Miller. Within the column Miller published many
poems that expressed her opinion of clichs about women at the time. She published many more
poems in the column as responses to anti-suffragist speakers and politicians. Her poems outlined,
in her opinion, the stupidity of anti-suffragist points. While Miller often wrote to express her
independent opinion on cultural issues, her greatest success within the political issue of womens
suffrage came when she quoted her foes in order to force a conversation even if it was a
hypothetical conversation.
Alice Duer Miller had many poems published in the New York Tribune in the year 1915,
in this year she published some poems that did not reference any speech or speaker. One of these
poems was titled: Why We Oppose Votes for Men. This poem did not address a speech or a
politician but made fun of points made against women themselves as to why they should not get
the vote. One of the lines in the poem that seemed to have been more pointed is 4. Because men
will lose their charm if they step out of their natural sphere and interest themselves in other
matters than feats of arms, uniforms and drums.1 This line was a stab at the idea that being able
to vote would make a woman ugly or that it would make her lose her allure.
That idea that voting rights would make a woman less attractive was pointed out in
another one of Alices poems that did not directly address a speech or politician. The poem
mentioned was titled: Warning to Suffragists. In this poem Miller wrote a satirical warning to
women who wanted the vote that they would lose any charm or allure they had. This would
happen if they simply exercised their right to choose who had power in their government.2
1. Alice Duer Miller, Why We Oppose Votes for Men. (New York: George H. Doran Company,

1915), 1.
2. Alice Duer Miller, Warning to Suffragists. (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1915), 1.

Through her satirical wording Miller pointed out how ridiculous the idea was that a woman
would lose prettiness or their allure by being able to vote. This poem was very clear about its
meaning and what cultural ideal it was intended to put to rest.
While these two poems had an impact on the target audience and made good points, they
were not the poems that were carried over into the suffragist anthem as the November 1915 New
York State Referendum was anticipated.3 The ideas that were spoken of in these poems were
directed toward to the culture the United States had, and may have changed people more
subconsciously but that was not easily recognized or recorded. Because these poems addressed
general ideas held by the public it was difficult to use them in the fight towards womens
suffrage, while the poems that directly addressed the speeches and politicians were more useful
in specific debates about the suffrage movement.4
Alice Duer Miller often used quotes from her anti-suffragist foes as a starting point for
her poetry. In this way she was able to direct a conversation with the speaker and/or politician
who had stated things she disagreed with. These poems were easy to use in support of the
suffrage movement because it shot down anti-suffragists and their ideals in a clear, concise, and
comical way. Each time she published a poem that addressed a specific speech, statement, or
figure she put the quote above her poem so that the audience knew what issue she was speaking
about.
The poem titled: Are Women People? Was an introduction to her column which spoke of
the way the government viewed women as people or not as people, in that they would charge
3. Mary Chapman, Are Women People? Alice Duer Millers Poetry and Politics. (Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 2006), 68.

4. Mary Chapman, Are Women People? Alice Duer Millers Poetry and Politics. (Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 2006), 66.

them money in order to pay a government that they could not vote for. In the beginning, the
narrator tells his son that the legislature is voted in by the people. Women were not people in this
instance. However, the narrator moves to tell his son that the legislature is paid by the people. In
this instance, women were indeed people.5 While this poem did not begin with a quote it talked
about a specific problem which was that women could not vote in legislature but they still had to
pay them.
Our Idea of Nothing At All was a poem that attacked a direct quote from a North Carolina
mans anti-suffragist speech; the mans name was Mr. Webb. The quote was "I am opposed to
woman suffrage, but I am not opposed to women." The narrator of the poem sarcastically was
very thankful to have had a man who did not oppose women, for if he opposed women they
would simply cease to exist. She was sarcastically grateful that Mr. Webb allowed women to
exist in their natural domestic state, that men did not oppose it!6 This poem was dripping with
satire in the same way that a teenager would talk about how happy they would be to clean their
room. The way it was worded exposed the statement that someone does not oppose women as the
special kind of stupid that the suffragists viewed it as.
"Women are angels, they are jewels, they are queens and princesses of our hearts." Said
Mr. Carter of Oklahoma in an anti-suffragist speech. Miller wrote a poem in response to this
quote which was titled: On Not Believing All You Hear. In this poem a man asks his angel, or
jewel, or princess, or queen where she had been. She told him she had been asking around about
why people denied the queen, or jewel ect the right to vote. The male speaker immediately
responds that that was wrong of her to do, and that she should go back to the kitchen where
5. Alice Duer Miller, Are Women People? (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1915), 1.
6. Alice Duer Miller, Our Idea of Nothing At All. (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1915),

1.

angels belong.7 This poem exemplified that it did not matter if a woman had beautiful titles, or
that a man felt that he had to cherish a woman as a prized object that a woman was not able to
have rights. Angels, jewels, queens or whatever else the label was belonged in the kitchen for
they were things not people. While this poem addressed a specific quote, it also addressed a
cultural idea that was so strong that it still exists years later.
Representation was a poem Miller wrote in response to Vice-President Marshalls quote
my wife is against suffrage, and that settles me. This poem had two parts. The first part Miller
described a man who had to obey his wifes every whim or opinion because she could not have it
on her own. She did not like golf, so he could never play it. She did not like income tax, so he
could never pay it. That first part pointed out that as individuals a husband and wife may have
had different opinions, but only one had the right to vote. Because of this only one opinion could
exist and the other had to be eliminated or ignored. In the second part Miller described a man
with many female relatives who had no one but him to vote in their stead. This man was in a bad
place because each of his female relatives had differing opinions and he could not possibly
represent them all.8 This poem clearly demonstrated the issue of representation for opinions that
women had at the time, the reason this had to be explained was because people like VicePresident Marshall believed they could efficiently and effectively represent their womens ideas
and opinions so women did not need to vote.
Men were not the only ones who were making anti-suffragist speeches. A woman named
Mrs. Prestonia Mann Martin made a speech which included a quote that Alice Duer Miller went
after for another poem that was titled: Such Nonsense. Mrs. Martins quote was "Where on earth
7. Alice Duer Miller, On not Believing all You Hear. (New York: George H. Doran Company,

1915), 1.
8. Alice Duer Miller, Representation. (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1915), 1.

did the idea come from that the ballot is a boon, a privilege and an honor? From men." Martin
wanted to express that liberty and the right to vote was mens idea and so it belonged to them and
was not for women to concern themselves with. Miller responded strongly to this quote through
Such Nonsense by naming all the men who died for liberty, and satirically calling them silly for
doing so. Women didnt need liberty, so why were the men being so silly as to die for it? In this
poem Miller assessed the quote as meaning that if women, as people, did not need liberty then
why would any person fight so hard for it.9 This issue was harder for some to understand.
Because the issue of the vote was gendered, men were people and women were women. People
deserved liberty as a right, but women were not people. To suffragists like Alice women were
people just as men were.
The poems that addressed specific quotes contributed to the womens suffrage movement
because it gave a clear point against any clear points or people on the opposing side. Using
quotes also gave Miller, a woman, a political voice which she did not have before due to the fact
that women could not vote.10 Quoting anti-suffragists forced a conversation between antisuffragists and Miller which made people, or men who could vote, realize the issues that women
faced men faced too because the fact that women could not vote. The poems without quotations
made an impact on a way of thinking but the poems featuring quotes from the other side pointed
out major flaws in the anti-suffragist arguments that may not have been seen before.
Overall, Alice Duer Miller was a strong figure in the womens suffrage movement and
while she did write satirical poems about cultural views of women, her real success in the
campaign for womens suffrage came when she quoted anti-suffrage speeches, politicians, and
9. Alice Duer Miller, Such Nonsense. (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1915), 1.
10. Mary Chapman, Are Women People? Alice Duer Millers Poetry and Politics. (Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 2006), 66.

other figureheads in order to force a conversation in which she (a woman) was a part of. Many of
Millers cultural poems continue to be recognized today, such as Why we Oppose Votes for Men.
However, during the 1910s it was the poems that directly addressed quotations that created an
argument for womens suffrage. These poems gave Miller, who could not vote, a voice in the
political sphere. Her poems were used to express flaws in the opposing argument and because
they addressed specific quotes or events they were successful at exposing the flaws.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRIMARY SOURCES

Miller, Alice Duer. Are Women People?. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1915.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11689/11689-h/11689-h.htm
Miller, Alice Duer. Our Idea of Nothing At All. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1915.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11689/11689-h/11689-h.htm
Miller, Alice Duer. Why We Oppose Votes for Men. New York: George H. Doran Company,1915.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11689/11689-h/11689-h.htm
Miller, Alice Duer. On Not Believing All You Hear. New York: George H. Doran Company,
1915. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11689/11689-h/11689-h.htm
Miller, Alice Duer. Representation. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1915.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11689/11689-h/11689-h.htm
Miller, Alice Duer. Such Nonsense. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1915.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11689/11689-h/11689-h.htm
Miller, Alice Duer. Warning to Suffragists. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1915.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11689/11689-h/11689-h.htm

SECONDARY SOURCES
Chapman, Mary. Are Women People? Alice Duer Millers Poetry and Politics. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2006. http://www.jstor.org.dbprox.slcc.edu/stable/pdf/3568047.pdf?
acceptTC=true