Skip to main content

Story: Women and men

Role reversal

This anti-suffrage cartoon from 1893 warns that overturning existing differences would result in disaster. Lordly women would sweep into chaotic homes where men, humbled and incompetent, were burning dinner and attempting to soothe crying babies. The cartoon is captioned 'What, dinner not ready yet! What have you been doing?'

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: 1/2-031495; F

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Charlotte Macdonald, Women and men – Mothers and voters: 1880s–1920s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/zoomify/29214/role-reversal (accessed 25 June 2026).

Story by Charlotte Macdonald, published 30 March 2011, updated 1 August 2017.