The List of anti-suffragists is an alphabetical list of individuals and organizations that publicly opposed extending voting rights to women. Entries are organised by country and cover politicians, writers, religious leaders and social reformers active throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Opponents argued that women's suffrage would disrupt traditional gender roles, undermine societal stability or weaken national institutions. Opposition spanned the political spectrum and included both men and women, some of whom believed that women's influence belonged in domestic or philanthropic spheres while others claimed that women's suffrage would hasten socialism or secularism. Entries include notable individuals who campaigned through speeches, publications, parliamentary motions or membership of anti-suffrage organisations.
Europe
Austria NameLifespanOccupationOpposition to women's suffrageVictor Adler1852–1918Physician, founder-leader of the Social Democratic Workers' PartyIn 1903 he told the party's women's section that the fight for the male franchise must come first and that women "had to take a back seat," leading the movement to drop its suffrage demand until after 1907.Austrian National Library. (n.d.). Women are refused the right to vote – 1905 to 1907. In Ariadne – the women- and gender-specific knowledge portal. https://www.onb.ac.at/en/more/ariadne-the-women-and-gender-specific-knowledge-portal/women-use-your-vote/women-demand-the-right-to-vote-1848-to-1918/women-are-refused-the-right-to-vote-1905-to-1907Karl Lueger1844–1910Mayor of Vienna and head of the Christian Social PartyLueger, leader of Vienna's Christian Social Party (CSP), was known for both his antisemitism and his opposition to women's suffrage. Argued suffrage would benefit only Jewish women and undermine Christian and "Aryan" dominance.Prestel, C. (2004). [Review of Jüdische Frauen in Wien 1816-1938: Wohlfahrt—Mädchenbildung—Frauenarbeit, by E. Malleier]. Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues, 7, 256–262. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40326586Broussard, S. K. (2006). An introduction to the leaders and journals of the Allgemeine Österreichische Frauenverein (Aöfv), or General Austrian Women's Organization: 1893–1910 (Undergraduate honors thesis, Brigham Young University, p. 4). BYU ScholarsArchive. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studentpub_uht/3Franz Martin Schindler1848–1917Catholic theologian; CSP social theoristSchindler, in particular, held the belief that women were destined to fulfill their duties in life solely within the home, based on their "natural lack of physical force, depth and composure in judgment, determination in will, and perseverance in action." He argued that these perceived deficiencies made politics unsuitable for women and upheld a gender dualism that confined women to the spheres of home and charity.Bader-Zaar, B. (2012). Gaining the vote in a world in transition: Female suffrage in Austria. In B. Rodríguez-Ruiz & R. Rubio-Marín (Eds.), The struggle for female suffrage in Europe: Voting to become citizens (p. 200). Brill. https://brill.com/display/book/9789004229914/B9789004229914-s012.pdf?srsltid=AfmBOoprV16ThccQh33L03lZnKWNqhS2v1vK9SWleiyrMTZS_xJbVZU8Georg Ritter von Schönerer1842–1921Pan-German nationalist deputyDismissed female suffrage as "idiocy," claiming it was demanded only by women "who had failed in their calling as women" and by "Jewesses."Huber, A. (2022). The authoritarian institution: Else Frenkel and the University of Vienna. Serendipities: Journal for the Sociology and History of the Social Sciences, 7(1–2), 13–29. https://doi.org/10.7146/serendipities.v7i1-2.129575 (p. 17)
Belgium NameLifespanOccupationOpposition to women's suffrageCharles Woeste1837–1922Politician, consul for PrussiaAccording to The Brussels Times, Woeste "fought fiercely in parliament to prevent Belgian women from gaining the vote." However, in a 5 March 1902 speech in the Chamber of Representatives, Woeste declared that before granting "pure and simple suffrage exclusively to men," (p. 268) and the Catholic right would "make women's suffrage triumph," suggesting he viewed women's suffrage as a political tactic to counter the expansion of universal male suffrage favored by socialists.Gérin, P. (1969). Louise Van den Plas: Les débuts du "féminisme chrétien de Belgique". Bijdragen tot de Geschiedenis (BTNG-RBHC), 1(2), 254–275. https://www.journalbelgianhistory.be/nl/system/files/article_pdf/BTNG-RBHC,%2001,%201969,%202,%20pp%20254-275.pdf
Denmark NameLifespanOccupationOpposition to women's suffrageCarl Ploug1813–1894Poet, editor and politicianPloug called the 1888 bill on municipal suffrage for women a "link in a chain" toward "political equality of women with men" and urged the Landsting to "stop at the first step." He insisted women were "not particularly suited for legislative work," that "ordinary women as a whole really do not want to be able to vote," and that society would suffer if they were "drawn away from the acts of love that lie before them to quarrel ... in a parliament."Jacob Brønnum Scavenius Estrup1825–1913Politician, member of the Højre partyHe retained a mistrust of universal suffrage and parliamentary rule by the Folketing. Højre party and Estrup supporters blocked women's participation in political life in the Rigsdag (Parliament).Frandsen, S. (2015). En svær begyndelse – om vejen til kvindernes stemmeret i 1915. In Alle tiders Nordsjælland: Museum Nordsjællands årbog 2015 (p. 49). Museum Nordsjælland. https://museumns.dk/wp-content/uploads/En-sv%C3%A6r-begyndelse.pdf He held the view that his political engagement stemmed from a sense of duty toward the king and the fatherland.
Finland NameLifespanOccupationOpposition to women's suffrageRobert Hermanson1846–1928Hermanson, R. F. (2009). In Biografiskt lexikon för Finland: Vol. 2. Ryska tiden. Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:sls-4767-1416928957373Professor of constitutional law, jurist, and politicianHermanson played a central role in the 1906 Finnish suffrage struggle as the chair of the Parliamentary Reform Committee tasked in November 1905 with drafting the new suffrage rules. Despite his leadership position, Hermanson was a vocal opponent of women's suffrage. He believed that women were "by nature emotional creatures prone to extremism and ill-suited for politics and the vote," expressing clear resistance to their political inclusion.Eduskunnan uudistukomitean pöytäkirjat. (1905, December 12). Eduskunnan arkisto, Helsinki, Finland.Karl Heikel1844–1921Banker and politicianAs a member of the 1905‑06 Parliamentary Reform (Hermanson) Committee he argued that only some women, "not the lower social orders", should be eligible for Parliament, pressing to restrict women's candidacy and keep full political rights from working-class women.Harjumäki, A. (2018). Demokratisoitumiskehitys Tampereella, Oulussa ja Kuopiossa porvarissäädyn valtiopäivävaalien kautta tarkasteltuna [Licentiate thesis, Tampere University, Faculty of Social Sciences]. Trepo. https://trepo.tuni.fi/bitstream/10024/104381/1/1539001274.pdf
France NameLifespanOccupationOpposition to women's suffrageEdmond Lefebvre du Prey1866–1955PoliticianLefebvre du Prey represented Pas-de-Calais in the National Assembly from 1909 to 1927 and served in the Senate from 1927 to 1940. Lefebvre du Prey said granting the franchise would "undermine the family and give women direct control over public affairs."Applewhite, H. B. (2015). The final suffrage debates, 1920s and 1930s (pp. 32–33). In Women Representatives in Britain, France, and the United States (pp. 32–33). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137525871 As vice-president of the inter-war Groupe parlementaire pour la protection de la natalité he stated in Senate debates that female voters would follow priests' orders and "imperil the Republic," and he helped send every suffrage bill (1919–36) back to committee where it died.McMillan, J. (2004). 6 The Great War and Gender Relations the Case of French Women and the First World War Revisited. In G. Braybon (Ed.), Evidence, History and the Great War: Historians and the Impact of 1914-18 (pp. 135-153). New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781782381839-009Pierre Marraud1872–1958PoliticianIn 1922 Marraud's committee report recommended indefinite postponement, arguing that "the woman of the Latin race," unlike her Anglo-Saxon or Germanic counterparts, had not developed the same civic sensibilities. Marraud claimed that French women were generally more absorbed in their Church, whose dogmatism they did not question, and therefore it was reasonable for their legal status to remain different from that of men.Cavallaro, D. (2003). French feminist theory: An introduction (p. 9). Continuum.
Germany NameLifespanOccupationOpposition to women's suffrageHans Delbrück1848–1929Historian and politicianOpposed women's suffrage, advocating for a "true and perfect state" as inherently masculine, viewing suffrage as a provocative expansion of political participation that threatened monarchical principles.Kaiser, T. (2018, November 12). Stimmen gegen das Wahlrecht – der "Deutsche Bund zur Bekämpfung der Frauenemanzipation" und andere GegnerInnen. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. https://www.bpb.de/themen/zeit-kulturgeschichte/frauenwahlrecht/278830/stimmen-gegen-das-wahlrecht-der-deutsche-bund-zur-bekaempfung-der-frauenemanzipation-und-andere-gegnerinnen/Ludwig Langemann1854–1930Anti-suffrage leaderChairman of the German League for the Prevention of Women's Emancipation (Deutscher Bund zur Bekämpfung der Frauenemanzipation). According to Langemann, women's suffrage threatens "the most masculine people on earth"; must be prevented "in the holiest interest of humanity."Paul Julius Möbius1853–1907Neurologist and writerAuthored On the Physiological Feeblemindedness of Women (1900), claiming women's intellectual inferiority to support anti-feminist arguments against women's suffrage.Paula Müller-Otfried1865–1946Social reformer and anti-suffrage leaderLed the German Protestant Women's League (Deutsch-Evangelischer Frauenbund), which remained neutral but included anti-suffrage members. Müller-Otfried expressed concerns that women's suffrage could destabilize traditional familial and religious roles, describing political rights as a "two-edged sword."Kuno von Westarp1864–1945PoliticianSenior deputy of the German National People's Party (DNVP). Publicly demanded revocation of women's suffrage in November 1920, later admitting opposition despite its electoral benefits to the DNVP.Scheck, R. (2004). Mothers of the nation: Right-wing women in Weimar Germany. Berg. p. 54.
Greece