Ladies Making Comics

Ladies Making Comics’s October Surprise!

In case you haven’t noticed, the United States is in the midst of an election year.  I know who I’m voting for, but it’s still staggering for me to realize that 100 years ago, the idea of me voting at all would have been a preposterous, radical notion in most parts of the country and an experimental novelty in the rest.  (Though that hadn’t stopped some women from running for President!)

Women’s political activism has long been a part of the American landscape even before they had the right to vote— from Abigail Adams imploring her husband John to “Remember the Ladies” in the formation of the new republic, to female involvement in the abolition and temperance movements, and of course suffrage, property rights, and other first-wave feminist causes.  It is in many ways shocking that men thought they could withhold the vote from women indefinitely.

Of course, with all political movements come political cartoons, and women’s activism has been no exception.  And the more politically active women have become, the more women have tried their hand at political cartooning. So in the run up to the election, I’m going to be taking a look at female editorial cartoonists past and present, including some of the earliest pro-suffrage cartoons!  And while my focus will mainly be American, some other nationalities will probably slip through (for example, the poster above by British cartoonist Caroline Watts).

I’m going to do my best to present the cartoonists and their work in an unbiased way, though I cannot promise balance— most female political cartoonists are liberal and so am I.  Still, my goal is to educate, not to foment controversy. I am sure I will be totally successful in that regard.

LOL.