Some were wives and mothers, sisters of politicians, and granddaughters of Founding Fathers. These were the women who were already highly regarded and treated better than other women. Tales of imprisonment and abuse from poor white women and women of color would have been less shocking to the suffragists’ target audience. The significance of the Prison Special specifically was that respectable women were treated so poorly.

“Nay, be not alarmed. They are perfectly gentle, lovable, delightful women more or less known throughout the nation by reason of their social position and prominence of their families in the money marts of the world, yet who, nevertheless, wear upon their breasts the badge of the prison gate with its dangling chain.” —Oakland Tribune, January 30, 1919, on the Prison Special

The mainstream suffrage movement’s dismissal of Black women’s voting rights damaged the movement’s claim that they were fighting for all women. Many Black women, particularly in the South, would not gain full voting rights until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Yet these suffragists’ accounts of their time in prison showed that they had dealt with literal filth as they scrubbed toilets and lived with unsatisfactory hygienic facilities. They had lived with incarcerated individuals whom respectable society considered “dirty.” And it was the men and the state, meant to protect the women, who put them into that situation.

What are respectability politics?
Respectability is a set of social guidelines dictating acceptable behavior, from clothing to the way someone interacts with those around them. “Respectability politics” refers to the way that people attempting to make social change present their demands in a way that are acceptable to the dominant standards in their society.

disagreement over how best to frame their cause

disagreement over how best to frame their cause.

Stanton and Catt were sure that the best way to gain support for women’s right to vote was through careful fundraising and influential members. This meant recruiting women who could convince their rich fathers and political husbands to join the effort for women’s suffrage. All of these women were white.

The attention-getting tactics the NWP proposed were rejected as violation of the reserved way in which society expected women to act.

The Suffrage Procession of 1913 demonstrated underlying racism in the white women’s suffrage movement.

Yet the NWP initially attempted to exclude black women from the parade and even after conceding, told Black women suffragists that they must march in the back of the procession.

Paul and others believed that marginalizing Black women would make their cause palatable and respectable to white Southerners who were opposed to suffrage rights for Black Americans.