Suffragists caused a hatpin panic in the early 1900s.

U.S. History

A t the beginning of the 20th century, elaborate hats were ubiquitous in women's fashion. Hat brims were so wide, they often extended out past a woman's shoulders, and the tops of the hats were adorned with taffeta, ribbons, and lots of feathers. Hatpins, themselves often decorative and sometimes as big as a foot long, were required to fasten the large hats to a woman's hairstyle — but they also became inadvertent tools of self-defense for women who were gaining more independence and venturing out into the world alone.

The use of hatpins for self-defense dovetailed with a growing culture of "mashers," as they were known at the time. These were men who leered at, catcalled, or unwantedly touched women in public. Suffragists and other women's rights groups became increasingly vocal about the need for female safety, autonomy, and self-defense in the face of "masher" culture, but their efforts had the unintended effect of bringing negative attention to the female victims. Newspapers across the country reported stories of women using hatpins and umbrellas to fend off attackers, and by 1909, hatpins were considered dangerous around the world. Some regions attempted to regulate their length; in many U.S. states, women could be fined up to $50 for wearing hatpins that were more than 9 inches long.

Eventually, measures were taken in some locations to punish "mashers," including with fines and jail time. Still, women were sometimes told (by a judge in at least one instance) that they were simply too beautiful to be walking around alone. By the end of World War I, women's hairstyles — and the size of their hats — were significantly smaller, and the "hatpin peril" was all but forgotten.

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By the Numbers

Year of the first reported hatpin attack

1903

Year suffragist Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for voting

1872

Did you know?

British suffragettes' self-defense was known as "suffrajitsu."

The fight for women's suffrage reached a fever pitch in the early 20th century, and in the U.K., women encountered increasing physical resistance by opponents and law enforcement during protests and demonstrations. In order to protect themselves, some women started learning the Japanese martial art of jiu-jitsu, which emphasizes using leverage and targeting pressure points to overcome physical aggression. Media outlets started reporting on the trend, as well as on martial artist Edith Garrud, who was teaching jiu-jitsu to members of the Women's Social and Political Union (the driving force of the U.K.'s suffrage campaign). Soon, the term "suffrajitsu" was being used. The word was later used as the title of a graphic novel trilogy on the self-defense movement.