suffragent

From suffrage +‎ -ent, after suffragette.

suffragent (plural suffragents)

1. (historical) A male supporter of women’s right to vote in the early 20th century.

   Hypernym: suffragist

   Coordinate term: suffragette

   • 1908 December 21, “Home Office Scores. Suffragette Leaders’ Unexpected Release.”, in Manchester Evening News, number 12,405, Manchester, →OCLC, page 7, column 6:

     The “suffragent” comes in for his share of criticism. The “Hospital” states: “We cannot view with satisfaction the adherence of certain individuals of the opposite sex whose function seems to be that of ‘complemental male,’ as among the crustacea. […]”

   • 1911 July 23, “Cresskill Studies of the Jersey Hen; Mr. [Louis H.] Robinson Opines That She Has Something of the Nature of Women After All. […]”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 July 2025, page 4, column 3:

     “Are there any suffragents among fowls or birds?” asked Mr. [Ross] Agnew. / “What are they?” Mr. Robinson inquired. / “Male birds that do the chores about the house, the cooking and all that.” / “Oh, yes,” replied Mr. Robinson. “The male robin is a suffragent. Mrs. Robin makes him help out in the hatching very frequently, and instead of sporting around on the lawns the old man has to cover the eggs and keep them warm while Mrs. Robin attends meetings.” Whereupon another vote was taken on the suffragist question and the women lost again.

   • 2017, Brooke Kroeger, “A Coda: ‘The Least Tribute We Can Pay Them’: 1918–1920”, in The Suffragents: How Women Used Men to Get the Vote, Albany, N.Y.: Exelsior Editions, State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 244:

     Was their participation as “suffragents” lost in recall because of the fullness of the subsequent twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty years in most of their lives? Or was the downplaying deliberate, a postchivalrous response to obscure their role in the great women’s epic, as good allies should; that certainly has been the effect. It would be consistent with the League’s performance throughout the period of its existence that the men preferred to stay in the historical shadows.

   • 2017 November 6, Alexandra S. Levine, “New York Today: A Century of Women Voting”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 6 November 2017:

     Other suffragists (like Susan B. Anthony and Alva Vanderbilt Belmont) and “suffragents” helped make the referendum a reality here. Ms. [Elaine] Weiss called New York “the linchpin” that put our country on the path to pass the 19th Amendment in 1920, granting women across the United States the right to vote.

suffrāgent

1. third-person plural present active subjunctive of suffrāgō