The Woman's Bible Anti-Suffrage Broadside

What it is

This is a 1920 printed broadside titled The Woman's Bible, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton named as editor. Its headline names Carrie Chapman Catt, then president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), as a member of the Revising Committee. Two columns quote passages that criticize the Bible and Christianity, with page references. The bottom text asks whether readers are willing for women holding these views to become political powers.

Why it matters

The broadside was meant to turn opinion against the 19th Amendment, which would give women the vote. Catt's name did appear in the first edition of The Woman's Bible, Part I, published in November 1895. After NAWSA members, including Catt, voted to distance the organization from the book, a second edition replaced her name with that of Clara Neymann. The broadside shows how Stanton's controversial book was used against the suffrage movement after her death.

Look closer

• Which passages does the broadside choose to quote, and what might it leave out of the book?
• Why would the makers link a suffrage leader to a book about religion?
• Who would have received this printed sheet, and what did it want them to feel?