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Race, women and health · Claim record

In Vindication, Book One (1931), the organisation's president J. F. Rutherford wrote that 'the women make monkeys or dupes of men' and that men 'have lost their real manhood and sturdiness', and described the customary courtesies shown to women — standing when a woman approaches, removing a hat in a lift — as 'a scheme of Satan to turn men away from God'. The passage is part of an argument that the enfranchisement of women in the United States in 1919-1920 fulfilled Ezekiel 13:17.

Claim ID claim-attitudes-1931-women-to-the-foreConcerns 1931Explicit statement
Explicit statement · 1931 Verified

In Vindication, Book One (1931), the organisation's president J. F. Rutherford wrote that 'the women make monkeys or dupes of men' and that men 'have lost their real manhood and sturdiness', and described the customary courtesies shown to women — standing when a woman approaches, removing a hat in a lift — as 'a scheme of Satan to turn men away from God'. The passage is part of an argument that the enfranchisement of women in the United States in 1919-1920 fulfilled Ezekiel 13:17. Vindication, Book One, 1931

The organisation’s position or later explanation: No later publication has been found that retracts this passage. Vindication has long been out of print and is not among the publications it now distributes.

Show the evidence (1 source)
Primary JW publication Verified

Vindication, Book One, “Women to the Fore (in the chapter on Ezekiel 13, running head 'Serving Notice')”

1931 · pp.155-157 · J. F. Rutherford · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“The women make monkeys or dupes of men. The men have become effeminate, soft and easily influenced, and have lost their real manhood and sturdiness in the affairs of state and home.”

The passage sits in a section headed ‘Women to the Fore’ which applies Ezekiel 13:17 to the enfranchisement of women in the United States in 1919-1920 and to women preaching in the churches. It continues, on p. 157, by describing the customary courtesies of standing when a woman approaches and removing a hat in a lift as ‘a scheme of Satan to turn men away from God’. The same page then quotes 1 Corinthians 11:3 and Ephesians 5:23-25 as ‘the divine rule’ and says of that rule — not of the courtesies — ‘Satan would reverse this rule and put the women to the front.’ The section then continues to a passage on Mother’s Day.

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Opened in the Internet Archive scan on 19 September 2026 and read in full. The pages were fixed from the running heads printed on the pages themselves. The head '156 VINDICATION Ezek. 13' falls between the words 'prophets of peace and to' and 'have a part in guiding', so p. 156 begins there; the head 'Ezek. 13 SERVING NOTICE 157' falls between 'the real meaning is much different from' and 'that. It is a scheme of Satan', so p. 157 begins there. The quoted sentences lie wholly between those two heads and are therefore entirely on p. 156. The section heading 'Women to the Fore' stands earlier still, on p. 155.

Scan provenance. Full page scan hosted by the Internet Archive. The title page reads 'Comments by J. F. Rutherford' and, under the word 'Publishers', 'WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY / International Bible Students Association'; the copyright page reads 'Copyrighted 1931 by J. F. Rutherford', so the copyright stood in the author's own name.

Notes. This is a signed book by the organisation's president, not a magazine article or a reader's letter. The wording circulating on secondary sites matches the scan.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-wom-vind1-1931-women-to-the-fore

Claim page Correct or update

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-attitudes-1931-women-to-the-fore/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.