Skip to main content

Story: Voting rights

Suffrage cartoons: cleaning up politics

Image
Suffrage cartoons: cleaning up politics

Many of those who supported women’s suffrage believed that politics, like a dirty boy, would be cleaned up by women’s firm hand once the franchise was extended. In this 1893 cartoon, the moustachioed lad is wearing a badge saying ‘MHR’ (member of the House of Representatives) while being scrubbed with water from a bucket labelled ‘woman’s vote’.

Using this item

Manatū Taonga – Ministry for Culture and Heritage, History Group

Reference: New Zealand Graphic, 18 November 1893

by Ashley Hunter

This item has been provided for private study purposes (such as school projects, family and local history research) and any published reproduction (print or electronic) may infringe copyright law. It is the responsibility of the user of any material to obtain clearance from the copyright holder.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Neill Atkinson, Voting rights – Votes for women, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/cartoon/36438/suffrage-cartoons-cleaning-up-politics (accessed 24 June 2026).

Story by Neill Atkinson, published 1 June 2012.