They tried to prove women would never win an election, but it backfired
For a long time, women were excluded from the political world. In the U.S., although some states had given women the right to vote as early as the mid-1700s, it was not a nationwide policy. It was also inconceivable for a lady to stand for office. The first nation to broadly allow women to vote was New Zealand in 1893.
However, about 10 years earlier, in the U.S., Susanna Salter, a woman, was elected as mayor. It all started as a joke, and the men responsible for putting her on the ballot never expected her to get any votes, but she ended up winning with over 60% of them.