suffrage

Dr. Mary Walker: An American Radical, 1832-1919

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:01:00 +0000

Dr. Mary Walker: An American Radical, 1832-1919 is a plethora of facts, evidence, and tightly woven themes that are well-researched by Harris, yet the book isn’t boring or dry. I found it inspirational and enraging at the same time. Women of the past made it easier for women today by tirelessly battling for women’s rights (and for men who were not white property owners). Walker was a dutiful and energetic soldier. She served in the Union army during the civil war as a commissioned medical officer although she had to fight to get that official position.

Harris’ work reveals that Walker spent every waking moment living the fight for equality and justice for all. When other physicians slammed her for treating the working class (that were considered beneath male doctors), she kept on. Men and women alike ridiculed her for even believing she had the brains to be a registered physician, but she persevered.

Being a female activist back then was quite difficult. The suffragists, including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, were adept at bickering and jockeying for centre stage, and Walker was no exception. Gaining the right to vote in the U.S. (eighteen months after Walker’s death) has not erased these divisions among activists today. From personal experience, I can attest to being treated as invisible by many middle class activists because I’m a sole-supporting parent and working class.

As a radical, Walker could not walk down the street without being physically assaulted for not wearing feminine clothes. Bricks, food, and yells often greeted her as she carried on her way. Today, nobody throws bricks at me while walking out in public, but men still stop their cars to yell at me if they don’t like what I wear. After reading about Walker’s experiences, I took some comfort in knowing that while we have made progress since Walker’s time, we still have a long way to go before all men, women, and children are treated with the respect they are due.

Walker is an example of how we need to continue to fight to be given the same rights as the more privileged members of society. Harris presents Walker in a balanced light that made me want to keep reading until the final page. Maybe in a hundred years, women will not only be able to vote, but also get paid on par with men and walk down the street knowing they are safe.

Written by: Nicolette Westfall, March 1st 2010

Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life

admin — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 01:00:00 +0000

By Lori D. Ginzberg

Hill and Wang

Anyone who has ever been interested in the history of feminism knows of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. As author Lori D. Ginzberg notes, much of the focus has shifted towards Anthony, leaving few to know about Stanton. However, it was Stanton who took center stage during their time through her writings and raising controversy.

As a child, Stanton experienced the inequality between men and women, personified in a comment by her father: “If only you were a boy.” Judge Daniel Cady was a traditionalist; however, he recognized his young daughter's affinity to law (thus his disappointment that she was not a man). Stanton was not one to be confined by gender: she studied her father's law books and held intense discussions with law students.

Stanton first became interested in feminism through her husband, Henry Brewster Stanton, an outspoken and prominent abolitionist. During a conference in London, Elizabeth Cady Stanton met other female abolitionists who also believed in the fight for gender equality. However, Stanton and her husband would never see eye to eye on this issue. As she overshadowed him, their relationship became more distant. Even with seven children, Stanton raised hell and shook up society's notion about women's rights.

Ginzberg provides an excellent biography of Stanton, listing both the positive and negative aspects of Stanton's life. In areas where information was sparse (due to Stanton's children “editing” their mother's correspondences), Ginzberg did an excellent job filling in the gaps. As for Stanton and Anthony's famous partnership, Ginzberg covers their highs and lows, as well as many of difficulties the two faced in their journey together. As an additional bonus, photos throughout Stanton's life are put in a special section. Not only is this a comprehensive biography, but it truly captures all of Stanton's little quirks.

Written by: Elizabeth Stannard Gromisch, December 27th 2009

Pendant: Mr. President, How Long Must Women Wait for Liberty

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:24:00 +0000

By 2-Mile Jewelry

Canadian artist Viki Ackland's handmade jewelry uses pop art, found art, and ransom-note style letters to create a visually appealing cut-and-paste aesthetic from 2-Mile Jewelry. Female pop icons such as Betty Boop, Marilyn Monroe, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer adorn her works (mostly necklaces), as do floral prints, pictures of seemingly random items such as pliers, and simple statements such as "Delectable," "Coffee," and "Heard of Me?" Among these declarations is a stylistically spartan piece adorned with Inez Milholland's famous battle cry of the women's suffrage movement: "Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?"

There is no question mark at the end of this ostensibly interrogative statement on Ackland's pendant, rendering Milholland's appeal to then-President Woodrow Wilson a declaration rather than an inquiry. The text is simple black block lettering on a gray background, and the skewed edges of the piece, when viewed closely, reveal it to be a photograph in miniature of a protest sign. The back of the pendant displays a silver heart over more pieced-together text, which appears to be from a newspaper article, but does not cohere into a decipherable statement; it is purely for visual appeal. The metal loop at the top of the pendant will allow for a relatively thick chain or other necklace on which to string the drop.

Most of the pieces on 2-Mile Jewelry are priced at $20 to $25 (Canadian dollars) and come with a choice of wire or leather chain with a default length of 15". Longer lengths may be chosen, if specified at checkout. 2-Mile Jewelry will ship outside of Canada, with special shipping rates applied.

Written by: Natalie Ballard, October 13th 2009

Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love

admin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:01:00 +0000

By Sheila Rowbotham

Verso

Writing a biography is tricky terrain, particularly on a subject whose name is generally unknown. The author likely has reams and reams of information gathered from years of research and has the thankless task of deciding what can go into the book and what should be left out. For this reason, many biographies suffer from too much or insufficient information. Luckily, Sheila Rowbotham navigates these waters easily with skilled contextualization and engaging writing.

Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love takes us through one of the most intriguing periods in Western history. Born to a wealthy Brighton family in 1844, the young intellectual eventually headed off to Cambridge to study theology. However, he was soon swept up in the counter-culture of emerging socialism and class revolution. Rowbotham mirrors Carpenter's growing social awareness with his own "deviant" sexuality with skill and sensitivity.

Shunning his inborn privilege, Carpenter sets off to live an activist life, educating the working class and living off the land. Of course, problems arise. The many strong personalities involved in the Victorian social reform movement made creating an English utopia an impossible task and the affable Carpenter was often left stuck in the middle.

What is most striking about Carpenter's life, and the lives of those around him, is how unexpectedly progressive these individuals were. Almost a century before Greenpeace and recycling programs, Carpenter espoused the importance of eating locally-made food and even the benefits of vegetarianism. Several of his friends lived openly (to a degree) as homosexuals and Carpenter himself had intimate male relationships his entire adult life, eventually settling down with George Merrill for almost three decades.

Full of a genuine desire to make the world a better place, Carpenter and his colleagues all attempted to enact their beliefs to some degree. There was formidable opposition: George Orwell openly despised Carpenter, and around the time of the the trials of Oscar Wilde, both Carpenter and Merrill were the target of witch-hunting conservative groups out to punish homosexuals. But none of this seemed to hold Carpenter back; he continued to publish texts, give lectures, and travel around the world for all of his long life.

His tale is inspiring but also worrying; a century later we still struggle with the same issues Carpenter tackled. Groups like the Fabian Society and the Social Democratic Federation believed a cultural revolution was imminent, and that sexual, gender, and class liberation would occur within their lifetimes. Sadly, subsequent generations have not done these pioneers justice.

Pessimism aside, this book has much to teach us about what it takes to change a strongly traditional culture. Although names like Carpenter's have been lost in the selective retelling of history, the impact that these people's lives made was evident in the cultural upheavals of the 1960s and, one might argue, in activism of the present. An unwavering commitment to a simple, open-minded life made Carpenter an extraordinary person and an inspiring role model.

Rowbotham's biography is lengthy and thus might turn off some potential readers, but so much of the book is about the context of Carpenter's life and the bizarre (and often entertaining) company he kept, which makes the biography consistently engaging. My only criticism is that, as someone familiar with Rowbotham's work, I was hoping for more of a feminist analysis of Carpenter's ideas, as he was close to several "new women" of the day and also a strong supporter of suffrage and women's rights. All in all this is an amazingly written biography!

Written by: Jennifer Burgess, March 23rd 2009