Published in 1904, The Marvelous Land of Oz reflects the widespread social and political debate surrounding the women’s suffrage movement in the US. At the turn of the 20th century, organizations like the National American Woman Suffrage Association actively campaigned for women’s right to vote, a contentious issue that sparked public anxiety about shifting gender roles. Baum satirizes this cultural moment through General Jinjur’s all-female Army of Revolt, which conquers the Emerald City because, as Jinjur states, it “has been ruled by men long enough” (58). The army’s depiction mirrors common anti-suffrage propaganda and accompanying caricatures of the era. The soldiers’ weapons are “two long, glittering knitting-needles” (59), domestic tools refashioned for warfare, mocking the idea of women in martial roles.

Anti-suffrage propaganda often suggested that female empowerment would lead to social chaos and the collapse of traditional family structures. A common trope in political cartoons from the period was the depiction of men being forced into domestic labor while women engaged in politics. Baum’s novel brings this stereotype to life: After Jinjur’s victory, the men of the Emerald City are “sweeping and dusting and washing dishes” (120), complaining that the work is beneath them. What ultimately routs the army isn’t military force but a dozen mice, reinforcing the stereotype that women are inherently ill-suited for power. Baum (an advocate of women’s suffrage) channels such social anxieties, using the fantasy world of Oz to comment on and satirize society’s obsession with gender during one of the most significant social movements of his time. Many believe that as Baum was drafting The Marvelous Land of Oz, an influencer was at work: “The […] backstory of the witches of Oz […] involves a hidden hero of the 19th-century women’s rights movement and the most powerful woman in Baum’s life: his mother-in-law, Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage.” (Evan I. Schwartz. “The Feminist Who Inspired the Witches of Oz.” Smithsonian Magazine, Dec 2024.)