It's hard to believe today, but less than 100 years ago, there was a great debate about whether women should be able to vote. The anti-suffragists declared that voting women would abandon their families, they would become ugly and mean, and society would collapse.

This attitude was reflected in the suffragette caricatures drawn in newspapers and magazines. According to Tickner, depictions of spinster suffragettes were normally slender in a time when curves were celebrated; their faces likewise were severe and gaunt, “the lines of disappointment etched deep by the illustrator’s pen.” The spinster suffragette’s clothes and physical appearance emphasize that she is a failed woman and wannabe man. The lady wants to vote because she couldn’t get a date.

Read more about the anti-suffrage movement and see more cartoons and caricatures from the debate at mental_floss. Link