She Can’t Vote! – Circa 1916

The reliable, easily-adaptable Ford was a marvel to many auto owners of the early 20th century.

One can find vintage photographs or illustrations of autos used to pull wagons, haul vegetables, or engage in many tasks beyond carrying passengers.

In this postcard illustration, the farmer has hitched a chain to the Ford in order to pull out a stump.

Based on the quality of the illustration, I believe the postcard was printed during World War I, sometime between 1914 and 1918.

Even before the US entered the war, the importation of high-quality printed material from Europe was disrupted by the outbreak of hostilities.

Postcards circa 1914 often show a marked deterioration of quality.

The card was not mailed; the presence of a red two-cent stamp would confirm that this was a wartime mailing.

(Postage rates for the “penny postcard” increased to two cents between 1917 and 1919).

I am not sure if the farmer’s response, “She can’t vote” is a sly reference to the suffragette movement.

It is possible that the farmer was simply noting something impossible for an automobile to do, but one knows that widespread agitation in support of women’s rights was a feature of the war years.

Even today, it is hard to clamor for “democracy” and “freedom”, or to denounce foreign oppression, while continuing to ignore the rights of fellow-citizens.

The 19th Amendment, guaranteeing female suffrage, was ratified on August 18, 1920.