Emily Bissell - Anti Suffragism

Anti Suffragism

Bissel avoided politics and was closely identified with the anti-suffragist movement. She wrote "The vote is part of man's work. Ballot-box, cartridge box, jury box, sentry box all go together in his part of life. Women cannot step in and take the responsibilities and duties of voting with assuming his place very largely".

In 1896 Bissell published an essay called The Mistaken Vocation of Shakespeare's Heroines, taking the form of a report of a lecture to suffragettes. The purported speaker launches an attack on the Elizabethan playwright Shakespeare for placing his female characters in unsuitable situations, where they are not allowed to demonstrate their true abilities. For example, instead on having Ophelia as his wife, Hamlet would have been much better served by the more forceful Lady Macbeth, while Macbeth himself would have been better served by Portia. The audience greets her attack on Shakespeare with delight, ending up shouting "Down with Shakespeare". The spoof was supposed to show that is was absurd for women to seek careers.

In 1900, she testified before the United States Senate Committee on Woman's Suffrage, arguing that women had no place in politics. In March 1903 she addressed a packed meeting in Concord, New Hampshire speaking against a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would strike out the word "male" from the suffrage clause. The amendment failed to pass.