Minnie Bronson
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Minnie Bronson (September 12, 1863, New York - October 28, 1927 Cattaraugus County, New York) was an American anti-suffragist activist who was general secretary of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage.


Biography

Minnie Bronson was from Fayette, Iowa. Her father, Harvey S. Brunson, came from Ohio and worked as a minister, a hotel operator, and a director of Upper Iowa University. Her mother, Jane McCool, was originally from Illinois. Bronson was the youngest of five siblings. Bronson graduated from
Upper Iowa University Upper Iowa University (UIU) is a private university in Fayette, Iowa. It enrolls around 6000 students and offers distance education programs that include 15 centers in the U.S., an online program, an independent study program, and centers in ...
with an A.B. and M.A. During her time in university she participated in several oratorical contests; one of her competitions was attended by social reformer
Jane Addams Laura Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 May 21, 1935) was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, and author. She was an important leader in the history of social work and women's suffrage ...
, who would comment on the performance in her autobiography. Bronson worked as a high school mathematics teacher in
St. Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
, Minnesota from 1889 to 1899. Beginning in 1900, she led the design of educational exhibits at world's fair expositions including Paris (1900), the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo (1901), St. Louis (1904), Liège (1905), Jamestown, Virginia (1907), and Seattle (1909). She also held a number of short-term assignments working for the U.S. government, including as a Special Agent for the Bureau of Labor investigating labor conditions for women and children from 1907 to 1909 and Special Agent reporting on the New York shirtwaist strike in 1910. During
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Bronson was a member of the
American Committee for Devastated France American Committee for Devastated France (1919-1924) also known as C.A.R.D. ''(Comité Américain pour les Régions Dévastées de France)'', from the French translation of the name of the organization, was a small group of American women who vo ...
and traveled throughout France. She presented about the organization's work to the Iowa Bankers Association convention in 1919.


Anti-suffragist activity

Bronson served as General Secretary for the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS), the United States' leading anti-suffrage organization based in New York City. She edited their weekly periodical, the ''Woman Patriot'', that distributed anti-suffrage opinion across the country. In December 1913, Bronson addressed the U.S.
House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
Committee on Woman Suffrage representing the "anti" perspective, alongside speeches given by prominent suffragists
Anna Howard Shaw Anna Howard Shaw (February 14, 1847 – July 2, 1919) was a leader of the women's suffrage movement in the United States. She was also a physician and one of the first ordained female Methodist ministers in the United States. Early life Shaw ...
, Helen H. Gardener,
Carrie Chapman Catt Carrie Chapman Catt (; January 9, 1859 Fowler, p. 3 – March 9, 1947) was an American women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920. Catt ...
, and Ida H. Harper. A skilled orator and organizer, Bronson was active in speaking tours and debates in New York and other states throughout the U.S., together with Josephine Jewell Dodge, the president of NAOWS. Her campaigning took her across the country including California, Nevada, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Washington D.C., and Virginia. She also organized training classes to teach others how to dissect pro-suffrage arguments. With her background as a wage-earning woman - in contrast to many prominent anti-suffragists of the period, who came from wealthy families - Bronson was able to promote her connection with the working class in her public speaking and writing. Her events were often well-attended, though sometimes attracted significant attention and criticism from her pro-suffrage opponents. During a visit to Nevada in 1914, Bronson was escorted from the theatre where she had been speaking and, according to local news reports, "agitators" set the building on fire. In her speeches and reports, Bronson maintained that granting the vote to women would not have a positive impact on improving women's social and economic circumstances. A frequently-referenced line of argument held that opening up the vote to all women would dilute the influence of educated and reform-minded women who were better positioned to affect the political change she desired. Before an audience of 150 women in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Bronson was reported to have said: "In attaining the ballot, we believe that the best women would throw away the advantage which is now in their hands. In shaping public opinion, the intelligent and good woman now counts immeasurably, while the ignorant and vicious woman counts scarely at nil. But at the ballot box, both would be equal." Bronson, together with Massachusetts anti-suffragist Alice George, created a recording of the song "The Anti-Suffrage Rose" featured at the New York State Fair.


Publications

* ''The Wage-Earning Woman and the State'' (1912) * ''Woman Suffrage and Child Labor Legislation'' (1914)


References


External links


Photograph of Minnie Bronson and report of her activities at the St. Louis Exhibition, 1904
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bronson, Minnie American women activists Activists from Iowa Female critics of feminism 20th-century American women 1863 births 1927 deaths 19th-century American women educators 19th-century American educators Schoolteachers from Iowa Schoolteachers from Minnesota National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage people American anti-suffragists