The Suffragette Cocktail

It’s time to raise a glass to women voters. For the first time in U.S. history, women can cast a major-party vote for a female president, and will probably have a big hand in swaying tomorrow’s election judging by polls. It’s been a long time coming for some women — 96 years to be exact, since they were able to vote at all — so make sure you have the appropriate cocktail in hand: The Suffragette.

“The suffragette cocktail is the newest American drink,” the San Francisco Call wrote on July 4, 1909. “Any other kind of a cocktail makes a man want to go home and beat his wife. The new drink has exactly the opposite tendency.”

The article — bluntly titled, “Suffragette Cocktail Makes Man Dish Washer” — is a confusing read, one part male fear mongering, two parts “it’s about damn time.”

“One makes a man willing to listen to the suffragettes’ proposition,” the piece explains. “Two convince him that it has some merit. Three make him a missionary, willing to spread the gospel abroad, and four make him go home and wash the dishes.”

Putting aside the fact that it shouldn’t take a drink for a man to listen to a woman’s political opinion (it was a different era and people weren’t exactly open to new ideas), it wasn’t until 1920 — 19 years after the drink hit bars — that women finally got the right to vote with the passing of the 19th Amendment, so the suffragette cocktail doesn’t exactly have the mind-changing powers the San Francisco Call claimed it does. Still, it couldn’t hurt to feed a couple Suffragette Cocktails to the people who participated in the alt-right’s #RepealThe19th movement, just in case.

And if you want a specific person to raise a suffragette cocktail to, pick any one of the women who were born before the ratification of the 19th Amendment profiled on the website I Waited 96 Years. Cheers.

Here’s the Original Suffragette Cocktail via the San Francisco Call:

“Cilo gin, French vermouth and Italian vermouth in equal parts to make a gill, mix in a cocktail glass, add a dash of orange bitters, twist in two strips of lemon peel and serve.”