National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage

The National Association Opposed to Women Suffrage (NAOWS) was established by Josephine Jewell Dodge in New York City in 1911.

[2] Dodge was currently the president of the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NYSAOWS).

[7][8] Like other anti-suffrage organizations, NAOWS published a newsletter as well as other publications, containing their opinions on the current political issues of the time.

[17] Thompson's influence on politics was effective at preventing the initial ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in Delaware.

[21] Rutherford's influence with the Confederate daughters of Georgia helped raise the profile of GAOWS and the group quickly grew to 2,000 members.

[20] For women who supported the idea of the Lost Cause, suffragists represented a change to traditional class and gender roles in the South.

[29] Many members of NJAOWS were wealthy and involved in "patriotic, heritage organizations" like the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).

[34] The group started publishing a newspaper called the South Dakota Anti-Suffragist and campaigned against upcoming suffrage referendums in the state.

[34] In March 1916, the Texas Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (TAOWS) was created as a chapter of NAOWS in Houston with Pauline Wells as the president.

[35][36] The chapter in Texas also connected the increase in African Americans voting to women's suffrage and they stoked fears of "domination by the black race in the South.

"[35] They also believed that women's suffrage was linked to "feminism, sex antagonism, socialism, anarchy and Mormonism.

[35] A group, the Virginia Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (VAOWS) formed in Richmond in March 1912 and affiliated with NAOWS.

[50] VAOWS appealed to state's rights as a means to oppose federal oversight of their voting practices.

NAOWS submitted pamphlets like these to the general public as well as directing them to government officials so that political figures would see that women opposed the then-unratified nineteenth amendment.

According to the NAOWS and the state-based organizations that it inspired, voting would severely and negatively affect the true submissive and domestic state of the feminine.

NAOWS wanted to appeal to conservative and traditional members of their community, including other women and religious figures.