Food, Feminism, and Suffrage History in the New Edition of "The Washington Women's Cookbook"
Give us the vote and we will cook
The better for a wide outlook.
This was the call to action on the title page of the Washington Women’s Cookbook, published in 1909 by the Washington Equal Suffrage Association. It included recipes from suffragettes all over the state of Washington, as well as quotes on women’s rights. There was everything from how to make good coffee, to bread, to canning and pickles. There was even a “mountaineer” chapter, with tips on cooking outdoors and how to build a campfire.
Original edition of Washington Women’s Cookbook
The Washington Equal Suffrage Association wasn’t alone in publishing a cookbook. In suffrage groups around the country, these cookbooks allowed them to raise money and support for their cause. As Paula Becker wrote, “The Washington Women's Cook Book soothed men who worried that voting women would throw off their domestic traces, and offered suffragists a Trojan horse. The thick pro-suffrage crust surrounding homey recipes invited a woman to peruse the message of equality while warming the oven to bake Hot Water Sponge Cake (p. 91) or waiting for Smothered Chicken (p. 23) to brown. Such cookbooks offered suffragists a chance to raise money for the cause, a chance to proselytize, but most important they were calculated to provide demonstrations of domesticity.”
This year, inspired by the 1909 edition, a group of women got together to publish a new one, The Washington Women’s Cookbook: Good Eats and Votes for Women in 2020. A collection of recipes, essays, profiles, interviews, and art from Pacific Northwest women about the intersections of food, community, and feminism, the book aims to take a nod from the past, but offer a more inclusive and intersectional perspective in its pages.
“The mission of the 2020 edition of the book explicitly rejects the tactics used by many of the white suffragists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Why ground our book then in this historical context? By using the original book as our framework, we are able to tie past to present and examine the inequities of the women’s movement that still exist to this day,” as the editors state on their website.
The collective creative effort that has brought this book to life includes printing and binding it at Raspberry Bow Press, a small press launched by publisher and editor Em Gale in Skagit Valley, Washington.
All proceeds are being donated to Matriarch, a national political action committee dedicated to funding and endorsing working-class women in order to elect them into office, and the National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington, a local organization dedicated to recruiting, training, and electing women to office.
We caught up with Em to talk about the book, women’s suffrage, and how we all stay engaged.
Comestible: When did you first come across the original Washington Women's Cookbook, and then how did the idea to make a 2020 edition come about?
Em Gale: I first learned about the original book while working with Chandler O’Leary and Jessica Spring on their book Dead Feminists back in 2016 when I was an editor at Sasquatch Books. I then spent the next four years thinking about it on and off. I just kept returning to what I thought was a really great idea—to collaborate with local women and put together a new edition of recipes and essays as a way to build community and encourage people to vote. This is my first solo publishing project outside of working for publishing companies, and it’s been really rewarding to apply my professional experience to a passion project.
What's the main goal of the book?
The main goal of the book is to encourage people to not only vote, but to vote in the interests of all women and marginalized communities. I was initially reacting to the news that a majority of white women voted for Trump in 2016. And I’ve spent the years since then thinking about how these women who voted for him were not voting to uplift all women but were voting to maintain their own privileged positions. My hope is for everyone to use their vote to help enrich not only their own community but also the communities around them.
Do you have a favorite piece (or two) from the book?
Yes! One of my favorite essays is titled “An Incomplete Victory,” and it examines the ways in which white women actively worked to exclude women of color during the suffrage movement. I think it’s a great intro piece to the rest of the book as it was important to me to avoid presenting American suffrage and the 19th Amendment through rose-tinted glasses. My other favorite piece is a series of portraits illustrating the women we profile throughout the book. These profiles feature women of color who were instrumental in the suffrage movement and, separately, in the culinary world. But on a more general note, I love how many of the submissions we received speak to the recipes and experiences shared among women intergenerationally. The love for friends, sisters, mothers, and grandmothers is so apparent throughout, and I think it speaks to the strengths of our women-centered communities.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, and that's certainly worth celebrating, but it's equally important to acknowledge the inequities that existed in the American suffrage movement. How have you worked to do that in this book?
I guess I’ve already answered that to some extent. But to elaborate more, it’s been important to me from the very start to frame the new edition of the book within its actual historical context. I was even hesitant early on to use the original book as the basis of the project, but I think it’s an interesting way to tie past to present and to examine the inequities of the women’s movement (that exist to this day!). And especially given the centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment this year, I wanted to highlight the fact that even though we so often say “women won the vote,” we really are not talking about all women. I think it’s important for people to know that.
Cookbooks were used as a tool by the suffragettes. How might we today use food as a tool for fighting for equality?
I think food is a great way to bring people with different experiences together, and it’s also a great way to get to know more people in your community, say by bringing a new neighbor some cookies. I truly believe that, but I also think it’s a bit of a platitude. I came to a better understanding of how food can be used as a tool for fighting inequality while I was researching the women we profile from the culinary world. All of them are or were highly successful chefs and business owners who also gave back to their communities. That really struck me, that these women were literally embodying the idea behind the project. Their work with food and social justice was just totally inseparable—whether they were feeding protesters or training young people with job skills or providing more access to nutritional foods. Working on the book has gotten me a lot more interested in food justice, and I hope to become more involved in local food-related organizations.
In an election year, it's so easy to focus on election day, but it's important to remember that we "vote" in a variety of ways in our daily lives (what we purchase, what we read, etc). What do you see as some of the essential ways that we can all be engaged on a more regular basis?
I think reading is a great way to stay engaged, and I’m a big fan of the news (reputable news sources, of course!). I read a lot of news—I know it can lead to burnout for some people but it’s such a good way to know what is happening both locally and all over the world. It can build compassion and empathy, and I truly think it’s our duty as engaged citizens to be informed with accurate information. Another key aspect of reading the news is to pay for the news. If people can afford to, I absolutely encourage them to sign up for subscriptions to newspapers like the New York Times or the Guardian. Being equipped with factual information and awareness for other people’s experiences can go a long way toward making decisions that benefit people other than just yourself.
This has been a heavy year for a lot of people. Do you feel a sense of burn out or exhaustion going into the election, or do you feel energized and hopeful? Maybe a mix of both?
I definitely feel both! I can be a bit of a pessimist, and I remember back in 2016 I was telling everyone that Trump could win, even though they thought that was too crazy to happen. But then, it happened. So I admit that I don’t feel very confident about the 2020 election. Really, none of us should, which is why it’s so important we stay active and involved. But I do feel hope—I’ve been so inspired by all the women who have been running for public office over the last several years. And these women are winning! Hopefully we can see a bigger change at the federal level but it’s encouraging in terms of change at the local level.
To order a copy of the book, head to wawomenscookbook.com.
Lead papercut illustration by Anna Brones
Spreads courtesy of Washington Women’s Cookbook 2020, illustration by Frances Smith
Interested in women’s history? Check out our stories from Comestible Issue 9, devoted to the theme of grandmothers and the wisdom, knowledge, and inspiration of the women who came before us.
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