Splintered Sisterhood: Gender and Class in the Campaign against Woman Suffrage (review)

466 Rhetoric & Public Affairs to be credited for calling attention to these problems and limiting her conclusions while raising issues that cannot be resolved from polling data. Readers familiar with the history of U.S. women and of the first ladyship will be disappointed by the abbreviated treatment in this book, which cannot contextualize fully the data being analyzed. The rationale for looking only at the polls from 1993-94 is strong, however, and the incorporation of some data from more recent polls reduces the reader's sense that the story is only half told. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell University of Minnesota Splintered Sisterhood: Gender and Class in the Campaign against Woman Suffrage. By Susan E. Marshall. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997; pp. xii + 347. $55.00 cloth; $21.95 paper. In this carefully argued and well-documented book, Susan E. Marshall, Distinguished Teaching Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, fills a significant lacuna in previous scholarship of the woman suffrage movement by providing a careful study of the organized efforts against enfranchisement. Puzzled by women's opposition to suffrage, Marshall moves beyond simple descriptions of their arguments as grounded in the True Woman ideal to understand the reasons and motivations for their opposition. Her thesis is clear: "a conservative urban elite regarded the extension of suffrage as antithetical to its interests. Already under siege by new wealth, immigration, and labor unrest, this group feared that progressive reforms such as woman suffrage would further diminish its power and endanger particularly women's status as political appointees, society volunteers, and custodians of propriety" (xi). In her introduction, "The Paradox of Antifeminism," Marshall clarifies how her study differs from earlier work and lays out her approach. Rejecting the "simplistic" and "misleading" dichotomy between the suffragist "new woman" and the antisuffragist "true woman," Marshall views the antisuffragists' opposition to suffrage as grounded in gendered class differences and as motivated primarily by a concern for social position. Her study depicts the antisuffragists as political activists, whose arguments sought "to obfuscate the true extent of their political activism" (4). Equally important, Marshall insists that these women were acting in their own interests, not simply to protect their husbands'. Drawing on the organizational records of the Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage, one of the most influential antisuffrage organizations, and relying on a count analysis of over 200 antisuffrage writings , Marshall provides abundant evidence for her claims. For example, in chapters two and three, "Women of High Social Standing" and "Gentleman Suffrage," Marshall carefully documents the social and economic standing of the antisuffrage Book Reviews 467 supporters, male and female. Her analysis reveals a membership largely restricted to wealthy, socially elite, and urban families, many of whom were connected through marriage and business interests. This profile provided unusual resources for the antisuffragists' campaign. The social position and networks enabled women, even before formal organizing, to exercise considerable influence without abandoning their public image as traditional homemakers. For their part, men eschewed joining suffrage organizations, although they provided endorsements, money, and expertise to women working against suffrage. Having established her claims about the demographics of the antisuffragists and the reasons for their opposition, Marshall devotes a series of chapters to the particulars of the movement: chapter four, "A Menace to Society," focuses on the rhetoric; chapter five, "Mobilizing a Majority," considers the obstacles and effectiveness of their efforts to organize; and chapter six, "From Parlor to Politics," traces the evolution of their strategies. To study the rhetoric, Marshall sampled some 214 antisuffrage writings, stretching from 1867 until immediately after the passage of the federal amendment. Looking at the materials in three time periods that coincide with significant developments in the campaign (the late nineteenth century, 19001912 , and 1913-1921), her careful content analysis reveals that not only did the arguments change over time, but also that men and women differed in both the nature of their arguments and their tone. So, for example, men tended to use more personal attacks and to focus on the preservation of separate spheres, while women argued for the multiplicity of women's roles, to which suffrage would simply be a burdensome addition. Marshall's...