Jean H. Baker. Sisters: The Lives of America's Sufragists. New York: Hill & Wang, 2005. xi + 277 pp. $16.00, paper, ISBN 978-0-8090-8703-7.
Reviewed by John Thomas McGuire
Published on H-SHGAPE (April, 2007)
When former President Gerald R. Ford's body Paul. The result is an interesting, enlightening, al‐ lay in rest at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda earlier this beit not fawless reconsideration of these fve year, television news anchor Charles Gibson not‐ women, who for the most part made important ed that the only statue of a woman in the build‐ contributions to the sufrage movement from the ing's Statuary Hall was that of Frances Willard, mid-1800s to the early 1900s. the late nineteenth-century temperance reformer Baker discusses in her introduction why she and long-time president of the Women's Christian chose her fve subjects. They all demonstrated Temperance Union (WCTU). Echoing Gibson's qualities of "leadership, optimism, stamina, and comment, Jean H. Baker, professor of history at remarkable longevity," the author asserts, and Goucher College, recently declared that the wom‐ their activities also shaped the goals of what Bak‐ an's sufrage movement in the United States suf‐ er calls the frst wave of feminism (pp. 4-5). But fered from a similarly seeming neglect in Ameri‐ Baker intends to do more than just provide analy‐ can history survey classes. While she agreed with ses of her subjects' public achievements. Instead, historian Joan Hof that the Nineteenth Amend‐ refecting the call of current feminists "that the ment's ratifcation in 1920 came too late to fully personal is the political," she sets out to integrate develop women's political and civic development the women's private lives into their public work. in this country, Baker added that "voting moved By doing so, she concludes, these fve women will women out of a previously gender-segregated "become part of the American political tradition" public culture and created an American one (p. 11). Baker therefore intends to do a feminist based on the participation of political equality," a version of Richard Hofstadter's 1948 classic, The still signifcant development in United States his‐ American Political Tradition and the Men Who tory.[1] To help remedy this apparent neglect, Made It. Baker's new book concentrates on the lives of fve The outstanding part of Sisters comes in Bak‐ sufragists: Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, Eliza‐ er's consideration of Stone, Anthony, and Stanton. beth Cady Stanton, Frances Willard, and Alice H-Net Reviews
These three women emerge not only as distinct fght for a national constitutional sufrage amend‐ individuals, but also as diferent parts of the mo‐ ment. Finally, Anthony found personal fulfllment saic that comprised the sufrage movement from in close relationships with several younger wom‐ the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention to Anthony's en. Baker carefully delineates the extent of these death in 1906. Stone (1818-1893) emerges as the relationships, noting that while contemporary principled loner, Anthony as the tireless organiz‐ defnitions of women's relationships did not auto‐ er, and Stanton as the intellectual of the early suf‐ matically encompass lesbianism, Victorian wom‐ frage movement. Stone only knew an abused en still engaged in "emotionally and sexually grat‐ mother and a hard-bitten, alcoholic father in her ifying relationships as kindred spirits" (p. 76). childhood. Rebelling against what she perceived Stanton (1815-1902) emerges as the most com‐ as a repressive, patriarchal family, she attended plex fgure of the early sufragists. Like Stone, she Oberlin College, and then became a popular lec‐ came from a complex familial situation. Her fa‐ turer on women's issues. Her native pessimism-- ther once admitted to her that he had wanted a Stone described herself as a "disappointed wom‐ boy, and her mother's constant childbearing pre‐ an"--received ample support during her long life. cluded much afection for the young woman. But, She endured a complicated marriage with Henry like Anthony, she became a woman forever rest‐ Blackwell, a discreet philanderer who nonetheless less with the strictures of society. Although she renounced his legal rights over her when they married a much older man, Anthony never auto‐ married in 1855. Her stubborn adherence to prin‐ matically obeyed his dictates. She also became a ciple caused an equally complicated public life. forceful advocate of a wide-ranging women's Stone refused to deliver a commencement speech rights agenda, which included divorce reform, at Oberlin when college authorities denied her a child custody for women, and exposure of spousal gender-integrated audience. She also emerged as abuse. Moreover, while not as dynamic a speaker more socially conservative than her contempo‐ as Anthony, Stanton eventually emerged as the rary sufragists (she disagreed with Stanton about sufrage movement's most politically astute lead‐ divorce reform) and also supported sufrage for er, presiding over both the NWSA and the black men, which Anthony and Stanton opposed. NAWSA. She also engaged in intellectual activities, Stone eventually founded the American Woman trying to amend the Bible's patriarchal overtones Sufrage Association (AWSA) in opposition to An‐ in the controversial The Woman's Bible and writ‐ thony and Stanton's sufrage organization, the Na‐ ing the infuential contemplation of women's role tional Woman Sufrage Association (NWSA). Not in American society, The Solitude of Self. only did this development terminate Stone's Baker's gift of bringing her subjects to life friendship with Anthony, but the two organiza‐ comes through most clearly in these initial chap‐ tions did not consolidate as the National Ameri‐ ters. A prolifc biographer who has written studies can Woman Sufrage Association (NAWSA) until of Mary Todd Lincoln and President James 1892. Buchanan, she etches out each woman in precise Anthony, born in 1820, emerges as a fgure far detail. Baker does not also treat her subjects as diferent from Stone in three ways. First, she moral exemplars. Although Stone supported the came from a family which emphasized achieve‐ Fifteenth Amendment's granting of sufrage to ment and strong Quaker principles. Second, she black men, she later opposed the extension of vot‐ became a constant traveler and agitator, wearing ing to immigrants. Anthony and Stanton not only special "bloomer outfts," fnding herself convict‐ opposed the Fifteenth Amendment, but also re‐ ed of a felony after trying to vote in the 1872 pres‐ fused to create coalitions with black women. This idential election, and eventually initiating the
2 H-Net Reviews refusal becomes doubly ironic when one consid‐ vived a seemingly moribund sufrage movement ers that these two women frst became involved after her return from Great Britain in 1911, and in reform because of the abolitionist movement. how her initiation of picket lines around the The author's interesting discussion of her sub‐ White House in 1917 created considerable pres‐ jects' personal and public lives continues with her sure on Wilson to support women's sufrage. The discussion of Willard (1839-1898). The WCTU pres‐ president fnally expressed his public support of ident emerges as a rounded person, with her dy‐ the pending sufrage amendment when the U.S. namic political leadership contrasted with her Senate voted on the measure in September 1918. sexual struggles. Baker shows how Willard used Baker could have made her analysis more con‐ the close relationship with her mother as a model vincing, however, if she also discussed in greater for her public leadership. As she aptly puts it, detail the contemporaneous eforts of other suf‐ Willard educated, comforted, and sacrifced her‐ fragist leaders such as Carrie Chapman Catt. self for WCTU members "even as they honored While Paul impresses the reader as a courageous and obeyed her" (p. 139). After assuming the orga‐ woman, as evidenced by her creating the National nization's presidency in 1879, Willard allowed de‐ Woman's Party (NWP) in 1916, the NAWSA also centralization, but still kept tight control with her deserves much credit for ensuring the Nineteenth speeches, visits with WCTU locals, and supervi‐ Amendment's successful ratifcation. In addition, sion of the national newspaper. The major weak‐ Baker's assertion that "women retired from par‐ ness of Baker's discussion of Willard lies in ticipation in public life for nearly half a century" demonstrating her subject as a leading sufragist. after Paul's eforts for ratifcation ended (p. 238) is While she supported sufrage after becoming belied by later examples such as Molly Dewson WCTU secretary in 1874, Willard's major eforts and Eleanor Roosevelt. concentrated on "sexual purity," temperance, and Baker continues her clear-eyed assessment in the formation of a national progressive coalition. the latter part of her book, particularly when it She only emerges as a supporter of the national comes to the issue of race. She notes how Willard sufrage movement. refused to support Ida B. Wells's anti-lynching ef‐ Baker's fnal chapter returns her book to its forts, and how Paul's actions belied her claims of former strengths. Perhaps her most interesting seeking cross-race coalitions. As the author con‐ analysis centers on the similarities between Paul cludes the NWP remained the "special preserve of (1885-1977) and Paul's seeming archrival, Presi‐ elite, well-educated, mostly wealthy white wom‐ dent Woodrow Wilson. Both came from strictly re‐ en" (p. 211). One could add that this failure to in‐ ligious and Ivy League backgrounds--Quakerism clude African American women in the national and the University of Pennsylvania in Paul's case, sufrage cause did not constitute a failure only Presbyterianism and Princeton University in Wil‐ within the NWP. son's situation. Both possessed seemingly aloof In conclusion, Baker's book substantially ac‐ characters and waged principled struggles which complishes its intended goals. It vividly demon‐ eventually led to heavy personal costs. Paul's fght strates how her subjects' private lives intertwined for women's sufrage forced her into prison many with their public accomplishments, and also suc‐ times and exposed her to the agony of force-feed‐ cessfully demonstrates the importance of four of ing, while Wilson's refusal to compromise on the the fve subjects to American political history. League of Nations partially led to his devastating Note stroke in 1919. The author is also impressive in [1]. See Jean H. Baker, "Getting Right with describing how Paul's dynamic leadership re‐ Women's Sufrage," The Journal of the Gilded Age
3 H-Net Reviews and Progressive Era 5:1 (2006): 7-17. This article is a reprint of Baker's Distinguished Historian Ad‐ dress before the SHGAPE meeting in April 2005.
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Citation: John Thomas McGuire. Review of Baker, Jean H. Sisters: The Lives of America's Sufragists. H- SHGAPE, H-Net Reviews. April, 2007.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=13100
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