According to my dictionary, the word ‘naughty’ means, amongst other things, ‘disobedient’. And the women who sent these postcards in the early part of the twentieth century – not to mention those who designed and produced them – were certainly being disobedient. That is, they were challenging the social rules of the society they were living in. And what fun they had as they did!
All too often the women’s movement has been accused of lacking in humour, yet the large collection of Suffragette postcards we have in GWL are full of wit and mischief.
I particularly like those postcards which feature little girls and babies. Strange to think that the cute little bluestocking pictured here will have lived her whole life and now be dead. But how wonderful to imagine that she did indeed have a vote by the time she came of age, and all because of those women who stood up and fought for generations to come.
While the following pair are making their protests in a more straightforward manner…
Not that there wasn’t a backlash against the Suffragette Movement’s postcards. Glasgow Women’s Library also has cards put out by those who feared the onward march of the monstrous regiment of women, such as this –
But this is only a tiny selection of the excellent range of Suffragette postcards in Glasgow Women’s Library. If you’d like to visit and see them for yourself – and read the personal messages handwritten on the reverse side – then please do. Just ask at reception if Laura or Lyndsey, our helpful archivists are around and they’ll get the relevant archive out for you.
So what are you waiting for? It’s a lovely way to spend a wet winter afternoon. And, of course, at the Women’s Library we always have a pot of tea on the go. Which reminds me, did you know that in the 18th century ladies who drank tea in the city’s tearooms were suspected of being dangerous revolutionaries? But more of that explosive mix of tea and the female sex in a future post!
Magi
PS REMEMBER IT’S OUR LIBRARY BROWSING HOUR TODAY – 1 – 4pm (THREE FROR THE PRICE OF ONE!) WHY NOT POP IN AND VISIT US?
