Story: Family violence

Men’s violence to women and girls was of great concern to 19th-century feminists, and was one of the reasons that they campaigned for the vote. After the franchise was won in 1893, women’s groups continued to lobby for other reforms. In 1895 the Dunedin Women’s Franchise League called for men committing violent crimes against females to be lashed – a suggestion that was lampooned in this cartoon, entitled ‘Sing Hey the Merry Cat-O’-Nine-Tails’.