Sing It, Sister: How Feminist Anthems Powered the Suffrage and Temperance Movements
Part 1 of "From Suffragettes to Taylor Swift: The Feminist History of Protest Songs"
Let’s set the stage: It’s the late 19th century, and life for women is…well, not great. Voting rights? Nope. Equal pay? Don’t make me laugh. Legal protections? Only if you count being treated as your husband’s property. But here’s the thing: women weren’t just sitting around crocheting doilies and accepting their fate. They were out there demanding change—and doing it with a soundtrack that could make Beyoncé proud.
These ladies knew that if you want to rally people, you need music that hits hard. Their anthems didn’t just inspire; they unified, annoyed the hell out of their opponents, and reminded everyone that the patriarchy wasn’t going down without a fight.
Let’s dive into how feminist anthems became the secret weapon of the suffrage and temperance movements—and why their echoes are still felt today.
How Music Became the Weapon of Choice
Here’s the thing about music: it’s powerful. A good song gets stuck in your head, lodges in your heart, and—if the lyrics are sharp enough—makes you question your life choices, just ask any woman who’s ever screamed out the bridge to “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” in their car. Suffragists and temperance activists understood this better than anyone. They couldn’t rely on TikTok or viral hashtags, so they turned to music to spread their message.
And spread it they did. These women borrowed familiar tunes—hymns, patriotic songs, even drinking songs (oh, the irony)—and rewrote the lyrics to fit their cause. Why reinvent the wheel when you can take something everyone knows and make it feminist? It was genius: the melodies were familiar enough to pull people in, but the words packed a revolutionary punch.
Take “The Equal Rights Banner” (1884), for example. Using the tune of “The Star-Spangled Banner”, this suffrage anthem demanded justice and equality in language so direct it might as well have been shouting, “Hey, Chad, stop hogging democracy!” It was bold, catchy, and—most importantly—impossible to ignore.
Oh say, have you heard of the new, dawning light,
Bringing hope to our land, and its foes all surprising?
Our banner still floats, as the emblem of right,
And the day breaks upon us, for women are rising.
And with ballots in hand, at the right’s dear command,
They’ll be true to the flag and will rescue our land;
And ever the EQUAL-RIGHTS BANNER shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Temperance Tunes: Women vs. Booze
Before we get into the suffrage hits, let’s talk about temperance, the movement that said, “Enough with the drunk husbands already!” Temperance wasn’t just about banning alcohol; it was about fixing the societal mess that came with it. For women, that meant fighting back against husbands who drank away their paychecks and turned into belligerent jerks by sundown. Enter: the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and their arsenal of songs.
“Come Home, Father” is the temperance anthem that launched a thousand guilt trips. This song wasn’t subtle—picture a tearful child begging her dad to leave the saloon and come back to his neglected family. If Come Home, Father were a movie, it’d win an Oscar for “Most Devastating Emotional Appeal.” And then there’s “Touch Not the Cup,” a hymn that turned a simple moral warning into a full-on PSA. It was temperance’s answer to Say No to Drugs, but with more tambourines.
These songs weren’t just singalongs; they were weapons of mass persuasion. By weaving their message into music, temperance activists made their cause impossible to ignore. Even people who didn’t care about the movement couldn’t escape the tunes, which were sung at rallies, in church meetings, and even on street corners.
The Suffrage Soundtrack: Give Us the Vote, or Else
If the temperance movement was about guilt-tripping men into better behavior, the suffrage movement was about demanding systemic change—and it had the songs to match. Suffrage music was fiery, direct, and dripping with righteous indignation. Women weren’t asking for favors; they were demanding their rights.
Take “The March of the Women” by Ethel Smyth (1911), which wasn’t just a song—it was an anthem for the ages. Smyth, a composer and suffragist, wrote it in 1911 to rally the British women’s movement, and it quickly became a global hit. The best part? Smyth was so committed to the cause that she ended up in jail for her activism. Legend has it she conducted a prison performance of the song using a toothbrush as a baton. Try topping that, Woodstock.
Meanwhile, American suffragists were busy creating their own hits. One standout was “She’s Good Enough to Be Your Baby’s Mother and She’s Good Enough to Vote with You.” The title alone is a masterpiece of shade. It’s basically saying, “If I’m good enough to raise your children, I’m good enough to have a say in who governs them.” Hard to argue with that logic, isn’t it?
But it wasn’t all about clever comebacks. Songs like “The Equal Rights Banner” and “The Women’s Marseillaise” (adapted from—you guessed it—the French national anthem) emphasized unity and determination. These weren’t just ditties; they were declarations of war on the patriarchy.
The Messy Part: Who Got Left Out
Of course, this wasn’t all tambourines and empowerment. Like most feminist movements of the era, the suffrage and temperance campaigns had a representation problem. Black women were often excluded from mainstream efforts, even though they were organizing and singing just as passionately. Leaders like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper wrote and performed their own songs, blending the fight for racial and gender equality. But their contributions were often sidelined by white activists who prioritized respectability politics over intersectionality. Sound familiar?
And then there’s the temperance movement’s extra reliance on moralism. While suffrage anthems leaned into themes of justice and equality, temperance hymns could sometimes feel like a lecture from your most judgmental aunt. Sure, they were effective, but they also alienated people who didn’t fit the WCTU’s narrow vision of “proper” womanhood.
Legacy: From Hymns to Protest Bops
So what’s the takeaway? Well, these feminist anthems didn’t just inspire their contemporaries—they set the stage for generations of protest music. You can draw a direct line from “The March of the Women” to Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” to MILCK’s “Quiet”. Even Beyoncé’s “Run the World (Girls)” owes a little something to the suffrage movement’s musical pioneers.
The songs also proved that activism can be creative, emotional, and fun. Sure, rallies are important, but so is creating art that moves people. The suffrage and temperance movements understood that changing minds often starts with touching hearts—and what better way to do that than with a killer chorus?
Sing It, Sister
The women of the suffrage and temperance movements didn’t have social media, TV, or even reliable radio broadcasts. But they had their voices, their determination, and a knack for turning everyday melodies into rallying cries for justice. Their songs weren’t just background noise; they were front-and-center weapons in the fight for equality.
So the next time you belt out a feminist anthem, whether it’s “I Am Woman” or Lizzo’s latest bop, take a moment to thank the OGs who sang their way to change. They didn’t just raise their voices—they raised an entire movement.
Thank you for being a paid subscriber to Bitchy History! The next article in the “From Suffragettes to Taylor Swift” series, where we will address how women’s anthems impacted the Progressive Era and the early days of the Civil Rights Movement, will be out soon!
