TWO ANNE PARRISHES

The first was born in 1760, a Quaker who out of gratitude for her parents surviving yellow fever, opened the first charitable organization for women in the US, in Philadelphia in 1795. It was The House of Industry which supplied jobs to poor women. The next year she founded the Aimwell School for needy girls. She was its first teacher and it continued until 1923.
The second Anne, a writer, came from a family of writers. She was born in 1888 and wrote both children’s books and adult fiction until her death in 1957.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/444579/Anne-Parrish

AN ENTERPRISING WOMAN

Mary Katherine Goddard accomplished several firsts – in Providence Rhode Island in 1766 she, along with her mother, became the first woman publisher; in 1775 in Baltimore, she became the first woman postmaster; and in 1777, one year after the Declaration of Independence was signed, she became the first printer to make available copies of the famous document with the signers names. In 1789 she opened a book store, also in Baltimore. She was a very enterprising woman, at a time when woman did not take on those roles in society. She made it a little easier for women after her to do the same.

http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/goddard-mk.html

FIRST WOMEN RELIGIOUS IN THE STATES

Maryland was home to a number of firsts in the history of accomplishments by women. In 1790 the first convent was established by Mother Bernardina Matthews, a Carmelite nun. These cloistered nuns settled near Port Tobacco at the southern end of the Chesapeake and southeast of Washington, DC. Think of the courage it took these praying sisters to come to a very young country, and live a life of prayer in a closed community.

http://www.factmonster.com/spot/womensfirsts1.html

ANNE HUTCHINSON DARED TO SPEAK HER MIND

Her greatest crime in 1637 seems to have been that she had an opinion – first about her faith, and second concerning an ecclesiastical hot topic of the day. As a minister’s daughter, she must have been better educated than most of the women in her weekly discussion group, and could do biblical exegesis as well as most ministers. This probably gave her the confidence to express informed opinions on church matters that ultimately got her banished from Massachusetts. She was accused of renouncing her traditional role of woman, and usurping the role of husband, magistrate and minister – roles reserved ONLY for men.

Hutchinson, Ann, Trials Of - Founding Mothers and Fathers, Making Heretics: The Free Grace Controversy In Massachusetts, 1636–1639

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF WOMEN’S RIGHT TO VOTE

“Resolved, that it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.”
As she wrote the resolutions in preparation for the Seneca Falls Convention, Lizzie Stanton added this one despite the objection of many. To attain the full rights and responsibilities of citizenship, she knew it must include the vote. Since it took over 70 years to gain, we should consider it valuable and EXERCISE IT!

http://www.usconstitution.net/sentiments.html

SENECA FALLS, DAY 2

The rights we as women all enjoy today, that day took a giant leap toward coming true! BE GRATEFUL to all those men and women!
It was agreed that on the first day, only women would speak. On the morning of day 2, men joined the discussion.
“The Convention assembled at the hour appointed, JAMES MOTT, of Philadelphia, in the Chair. The minutes of the previous day having been read, [Lizzie] E. C. STANTON again read the Declaration of Sentiments, which was freely discussed by LUCRETIA MOTT, ANSEL BASCOM, S. E. WOODWORTH, THOMAS AND MARY ANN MCCLINTOCK, FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AMY POST, CATHARINE STEBBINS, AND ELIZABETH C. STANTON, and was unanimously adopted,…”

From the minutes of the Convention - http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/report-of-the-womans-rights-convention.htm

SENECA FALLS WOMEN’S RIGHTS CONFERENCE- JULY 19-20, 1848

Around 300 attended, most were women. Over the two days there were six sessions including one on law, one humorous and discussions on women’s role in society. A famous Quaker speaker from Boston, Lucretia Mott was not originally in favor of women voting, but Frederick Douglass was persuasive in convincing the group to include it in the list of resolutions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Falls_Convention

WORDS TO LIVE BY

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind” - Dr. Seuss
Suffragists lived long before he said this but it certainly describes how they were committed to living their lives, as they fought to change the laws that constrained the lives of all women.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE FIGHT STILL NEEDING TO BE FAUGHT

"Pope Benedict has said the question of ordaining women – often raised as an antidote to the priest shortage and to bring about more gender equality – is not up for discussion." From the Huffington Post today.

In the 19th century, local ministers were some of the strongest opponents of the changing status of women.
At the risk of upsetting my RC friends, I find it incomprehensible that any human finds it possible to deny over half the population [women] as ineligible for ordination just on the basis of their sex. It seems the height of arrogance to think God would not consider women as well as men.

Is it a problem with accepting that a calling from God comes with the authority to preach with confidence?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/15/vatican-ordination-of-wom_n_647296.html

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

Writer and Prophetic Witness is the notation on July 1 for her inclusion in the Calendar of Saints of the Episcopal Church in the USA. She is credited with bringing the plight of slaves to Americans. She and her siblings had departed from their father’s anti-abolitionist thinking, and became an outspoken proponent of abolition and changing the conditions for slaves. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was only the most prominent of her efforts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_of_saints_(Episcopal_Church_in_the_United_States_of_America)

FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT OF 1850

This law enraged and at the same time made abolitionists fearful of being put in jail. Suddenly law enforcement personnel were required to aid the capture and return of all runaway slaves, or risk a $1000 fine. Any citizens providing food or shelter to fugitive slaves were also liable for a $1000 fine and 6 months in jail. It is said that this law inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Sojourner Truth and others considered it more of a nuisance, and made it a little more dangerous, but did not diminish their commitment to the cause of justice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_Slave_Act_of_1850

LIZZIE STANTON

As a young girl she would sit in a corner of her father’s home office and learn about how unjust the law and how lacking in compassion her father was. He administered the law with no interest in improving it for the sake of women, despite Lizzie’s many complaints. He was cold as stone regarding his three daughters, preferring his four sons who all died in childhood. She excelled in her accomplishments to earn her father’s approval, only to have him say to her at 16, “If only you were a boy.”
This must have hurt her deeply, but also must have severely damaged her father’s credibility.
At the advanced age of 24, her father forbade her marrying because Henry Stanton was an abolitionist, was 10 years older and therefore too old, and could not support her well enough. She acquiesced for a short while, but finally rebelled and eloped so she and Henry could attend the World Abolition Conference in London in 1840.
That event turned out to be pivotal to the rest of her life. She met many women who were also interested in improving women’s lives and became her allies in the battle to improve women’s rights.

THE FEMALE WRITER – GEORGE SAND, 1804-1876

She lost the last of her family, her grandmother, and inherited her family fortune at 17. In the next year she was married and realized it was a mistake. Her husband took over all rights to her property. Like many women writers in this country, this English woman expressed her frustration and outrage at the injustice.
“Women are forced to lead a life of imbecility, and are blamed for doing so. If they are ignorant they are despised, if learned, mocked. In love they are reduced to the status of whores. As wives they are treated more as servants than companions. Men do not love them: they make use of them, they exploit them, and expect in that way, to make them subject to the law of fidelity.”
She expressed much of the bitterness and frustration felt by countless numbers both here and in England. Fortunately for her, she had the talent to support herself, despite the loss of her fortune to her husband.

MODERN FORCE AGAINST DISCRIMINATION OF WOMEN

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a Supreme Court Justice, has worked throughout her legal career to decrease discriminatory practices against women. After being part of Harvard and Columbia Law Reviews and finishing at the top of her class at Columbia, she was rejected for the top clerkships because she was a woman.

Her career has been distinguished, including becoming the first tenured female professor at Columbia Law, writing the definitive law textbook on sex discrimination, cofounding the Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, and successfully arguing before the Supreme Court.

Her victories called into question many federal laws as discriminatory. Her career has set an admirable pattern for the increasing number of women lawyers, and has begun a process that will inspire many in the future to continue her battle against discrimination.

http://www.answers.com/topic/ruth-bader-ginsburg

“The Meaning of the Fourth of July to the Negro”

FREDERICK DOUGLASS originally gave this speech on this day in 1852. “Fellow-citizens,” he began, “why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?”
Since then there have been many readings of Douglass’s speech on or near this date, including this recent one in Springfield, Massachusetts. Douglass was a steadfast supporter of women’s rights and involved from 1848 until his death.

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/06/springfield_to_celebrate_frede.html
http://www.boulderweekly.com/article-2887-the-myth-of-a-post-racial-america.html

The full text of his speech www.masshumanities.org.

ABOLITIONISTS AND WOMEN WORKED TOGETHER

Many of the women and men, who worked for the establishment of women’s rights, were also committed to abolition and the establishment of human rights for slaves. So it is appropriate and poignant that the 14th Amendment advanced the rights of both groups.

http://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/suffrage/index.html
http://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/suffrage/index.html

SOME STEPS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

So far, these posts have concentrated on how the documents written at the founding of our republic did not uphold the rights of all its citizens. But it was a starting place, and a foundation on which to work for better understanding.

For more than 200 years, God has prompted many to put their own liberty on the line in order that others might gain their own previously denied rights. Our whole nation has gained whenever those disenfranchised individuals are able to live lives of opportunity.

Peggy Gunness has described how liberty is a faith issue for those who believe in God. “…God needs us to be partners with Him in bringing this world and the peoples of this world to the fullness of life for which we were all created.”

We do not yet live in a perfect country, but I am thankful for any progress we have made so far!

http://www.explorefaith.org/chron_070200.html

SARAH GRIMKE, BRILLIANT BUT ALAS A WOMAN

Like others before them, the Grimke sisters attempted to vote in 1870 when Sarah was nearly 80. This was only another in a lifetime of daring and courageous acts. She and her sister Angelina were the first women to speak before the Massachusetts Legislature in 1838. She had taught herself, using her brother’s books, until her mother and father put a stop to it. Fortunately for history it was too late. She had already ignited the brilliant mind within herself. Even her father admitted she had the potential to become foremost among the legal minds of that era, HAD SHE NOT BEEN A WOMAN. She used her brains and her voice in both public speaking and in writing, at a time in this country when doing those things was an open challenge to the authority of a male dominated society, who did not want to consider that women had anything of consequence to say and SHOULD NOT BE HEARD!

http://www.answers.com/topic/sarah-grimk-1

ANGELINA EMILY GRIMKE

She and her sister Sarah were outspoken Quakers from Charleston, SC. Their father, a prominent judge, was strongly in favor of slavery and owned hundreds himself. Having observed the cruelty doled out to slaves at close hand, they became committed abolitionists.
Angelina gained notoriety in the early 1830’s when she sent a letter to William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist and publisher of The Liberator. When it was printed without her permission, she was criticized by the Quakers and given an ultimatum. She refused to recant and was contacted by the abolitionists. Both sisters chose their path and began a life of accomplished distinction.
In the link below she shows what a fine analytical mind she could employ in her argument. Using scripture herself to refute the justification of slavery, she argues against God’s ability to bless any such institution as slavery, and uses Jewish Law to cut down any arguments that were used to justify it. There is no doubt that both sisters had inherited their father’s great legal mind, much to his consternation.

http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/abesaegat.html

CATHERINE BEECHER

By 1837, more and more women were being published, in order to influence public thought. They did not have the freedom to speak in public, so this was their best alternative. Catherine, the older sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, like her brothers and sister was passionate concerning the abolition of slavery. She wrote... a now famous essay addressed to Angelina Emily Grimke, herself a well-known advocate of abolition, along with her sister Sarah.
http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/abesceba2t.htmlSee More

This is the source for the documents between Beecher and Grimke.

http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/grimkehp.html

HER HOME WAS A PRISON

Legally and culturally, women were tied to their homes. She had no rights of her own, and so could not make her own decisions. A woman was not allowed to do anything alone. She was always accompanied in public. Her freedom to converse with others had strict boundaries, and she was never allowed to speak in a public forum. This was a problem as the Seneca Falls Meeting was planned. These prohibitions had started to change in the 1840’s, but women had no experience speaking in public. Fortunately, they had male supporters like Frederick Douglass. And they had been successful in issues of social change like abolition. You can hear that dedication and passion for justice in Mrs. Stanton’s words from “The Declaration of Sentiments.” Imagine the courage it took to assert the idea that women should be involved in public issues, and more importantly tell women they had a stake in the issues.

“Resolved, therefore, that, being invested by the Creator with the same capabilities and same consciousness of responsibility for their exercise, it is demonstrably the right and duty of woman, equally with man, to promote every righteous cause by every righteous means; and especially in regard to the great subjects of morals and religion, it is self-evidently her right to participate with her brother in teaching them, both in private and in public, by writing and by speaking, by any instrumentalities proper to be used, and in any assemblies proper to be held; and this being a self-evident truth growing out of the divinely implanted principles of human nature, any custom or authority adverse to it, whether modern or wearing the hoary sanction of antiquity, is to be regarded as a self-evident falsehood, and at war with mankind.”

http://www.usconstitution.net/sentiments.html