Contributions by women vital to nation's growth

Probably no one worked harder at making a home in the colonial period than the pioneer woman. She was often left to fend for herself and family while the husband was away at work in the camps or fields or on trips to market. Life was extremely difficult for many. (John Hancock Collection)

     Contributions of women in all areas of American life have received little recognition. However, since early colonial days women have made important contributions in the areas of abolition, social reform, politics, religion, and education.
     Pioneer women helped their husbands establish homes in a hostile wilderness. Some moved thousands of miles westward to begin new lives.
     Several colonial women left ideas which flourished and grew in later times. In the religious area, Anne Hutchinson and her husband arrived in the Massachusetts colony in 1621. She personalized religion for women in the colony by organizing small group discussions and prayer sessions.
     Her belief that an individual could talk directly to God brought heresay charges against her. She and her husband were driven out of Massachusetts and went to Rhode Island where she and Roger Williams established religious freedom.

Leads rival ministry

     Phoebe Palmer and her husband led a revival ministry throughout the United States in 1855. This evangelist claimed she converted 25,000 people to Christianity and was a firm believer in the quality of women in the church.
     Catherine Beecher questioned the Congregational belief that a person must be converted before being saved. In "Letters on the Difficulty of Religion" she maintained that God gave His grace to those who sought him.
      As a young Methodist woman, Frances Willard, felt she was called to be a minister, even though her church did not recognize that call. She founded the Woman's Christian Temperace Union and firmly believed in women's rights to vote.

First Sunday School

     Joanne Graham Bethune started the first Sunday School in 1803 as an attempt to help poor women and children further their education. They learned scripture, sewing, music, and reading.
     Many women became active in the abolition movement and fought for the rights of blacks. Soon these women found themselves fighting for rights they themselves did not have.
     Abe Lincoln reportedly said that Harriet Beecher Stowe was "the little woman who started the big war" with the writing of "Uncle Tom's Cabin". More than 300,000 copies were sold the first year it was published. Abolitionist principles were involved in a fictionalized account of slave life and did much to convince people of the evil of slavery.

Women speak out

     During the 1830's several bold women who were actively involved in the abolition movement fighting for individual dignity and human rights met insults and violence because they were women involved in political work. Soon these women were loudly protesting injustices done to women as much as they protested those done to Negroes.
     The Grimke sisters from South Caroline became feminists after being persecuted for making public speeches against slavery. After an abolitionist tour of New England, they made an unheard-of appearance before the Massachusetts legislature.
     As a result the ministers of Boston condemned both women for their unprecedented action. Sarah Grimke replied, "Whatever is morally right for a man to do is morally right for a woman to do."

Most ignore 'radical' women

     Male abolitionist leaders were sympathetic to the demand for women's rights, but felt abolition should come first. William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips permitted Lucy Stone to devote five days a week to women's rights, but at her own expense. Unlike their leaders, most abolitions ignored the concerns of these "radical" women.
     Then in 1840 women delegates were invited to an anti-slavery convention in London, England. Once the women abolitionists arrived they were seated behind a screen on a balcony. They could hear the convention's proceedings but were forbidden to participate. Such treatment outraged many women present. As a result Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, upon their return to the states, organized a meeting at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848.
     A small ad in the newspaper telling of the meeting resulted in more than three hundred women crowding the Methodist chapel in Seneca Falls. The women wrote a manifesto which declared, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women were created equal."

Lists legal disabilities

     It went on to list the social and legal disabilities women experience and challenged women to stand up and fight for their rights. Concrete demands were spelled out in 12 main resolutions. Elizabeth Cady Stanton inserted in these resolutions the call for the right to vote. With this demand the meeting ended in uproar.
     A few years later Susan B. Anthony joined forces with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the women's rights movement got underway. For the next 50 years these two women planned the movement's goals, masterminded its strategy, and built it into a powerful national force.
     It would be difficult to find two people as different from each other as these women. Susan Anthony, daughter of a cotton manufacturer, was in later years a stern, old maid with rigid habits. In contrast, Mrs. Stanton, daughter of a prominent New York Judge, was a jolly, plump, rosy-cheeked housewife.

Complement each other

     But the two women complemented each other perfectly. Mrs. Stanton had an original mind which helped her become a powerful orator and writer, as well as the builder of the movement's philosophy.
     Miss Anthony possessed remarkable administrative skill and organized another women's rights conference in Albany, New York at a time when the state legislature was considering a new women's property law.
     Miss Anthony prepared for this meeting with a petition having more than 10,000 signatures calling for reform. After the legislature greeted her petition with laughter and voted against the measure, she went after more signatures and the power of the petition became a standard tool for feminist demands.
     For the next few years both women traveled extensively around the country informing people of the women's rights movement as well as taboo subjects like divorce and prostitution and other social ills affecting women.

Required iron will

Women served with their men on many battlefields of the Revolutionary War. They carried water needed for both drinking and swabbing cannon barrels, served as nurses for the wounded and sometimes even joined the men on the firing line. (National Geographic Society)

     Traveling around the American wilderness required an iron will; food was often terrible, traveling conditions poor, and putting up with hecklers with rotten eggs were challenges both women overcame.
     After the Civil War, when winning the vote had become their chief goal, Congress deliberately excluded women from the amendment giving Negroes the right to vote. As a result the National Suffrage Association was established in Washington to lobby for an amendment to enfranchise women. It took the nation 72 years to acknowledge the right of women to vote. After gaining the vote in 1920 women found they won a battle, not the war.
     Thousands of women in the 1870s and 1880s joined various women's clubs and organizations in attempts to improve the social conditions of people everywhere.

WTCU led crusade

     The Women's Christian Temperance Union launched a practical crusade to protect legally helpless families from drunken husbands. In cities the major target of reform was the working conditions in factories. many factory workers were women and children who were grossly overworked and underpaid.
     The National Women's Trade Union League concentrated on getting sweatshop workers organized and pushed for protective legislation. The Jane Addam's Settlement House movement sent many idealistic, middle class women into slums to work with the many poor immigrants flooding the cities.
     In the 1830s people came to believe in social and political progress and to believe that government should respond more to the needs of people. Many felt poverty and suffering could be lessened. Reformers supported different reforms.

Involvement in other areas

     Dorthea Dix and others became involved in care and treatment of the mentally ill, prison reform, and education of the handicapped.
     For two years Miss Dix traveled about Massachusetts asking to see the mentally ill. She was horrified at what she saw; people locked in cellars, attics, and treated like animals. Her efforts resulted in the construction and enlargement of state hospitals as well as a more humane attitude. She believed these people could be helped if they were treated with love, care, and understanding instead of ridicule and abuse.
     While working with the mentally ill, Miss Dix also investigated prison conditions. Prisons were dark, dirty, and overcrowded and lacked good food, clothing and proper medical care.
     Robbers and persons unable to pay debts were often crowded into cells with murderers. As a result of her efforts, laws calling for prison reform were passed. One important aspect was making the punishment fit the crime.

Reformers aid handicapped

     At the same time other reformers were working to improve lives and education of the handicapped. Thomas Gallaudet developed methods of teaching deaf children and founded the first deaf-mute institution in the United States in 1817. Samuel Howe started a school for the blind in Boston. Other cities followed their example and life for handicapped people became meaningful.
     Health care and education also improved. More hospitals were built, smallpox vaccination came into general use, people with diseases were quarantined, and people began to understand the importance of clean food and water.
     Horace Mann, one of the most active workers for better education, worked for free and better public schools. His success in Massachusetts were imitated throughout the country. He also improved training of teachers and teaching methods and established the first teacher-training college.

Wisconsin women

     Many Wisconsin women were active in the crusade for suffrage. Through the efforts of Ada James, Wisconsin became the first state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment which gave women the right to vote.
     Others who helped the crusade for suffrage included Mrs. Henry Youmans of Waukesha; Mrs. Belle La Follett; Mrs. John Bascom, wife of the president of the University of Wisconsin; Carrie Chapman Catt of Ripon; Frances Willard of Janesville; and the Reverend Olympia Brown of Racine.
     Wisconsin women also have made many significant contributions in the fields of art, music, literature, medicine and education.

Active state women

     Vinne Ream Hoxie from Madison was commissioned by Congress to sculpt a statue of Abraham Lincoln. Another Wisconsin artist, Georgia O'Keefe of Sun Prairie, achieved national recognition for her modern art.
     Helen Farnsworth Mears sculpted a nine-foot statue, "The Genius of Wisconsin" now at the state capital.
     Two other statues included the "Adin Randall Fountain" in Eau Claire and a statue of Frances Willard, native of Janesville and founder of the Women's Temperance Union, on display in the Hall of Fame at the Capital in Washington D.C.
     In music, Carrie Jacobs Bond wrote several popular songs including "The End of A Perfect Day" and "Just A-Wearying for You". "I Love You Truly" probably is her most famous, is still sung today.

State woman wins Pulitzer

     In literature, Wisconsin had many writers; a few achieved national fame also. Zona Gale, born in Portage, became a reporter for the "Milwaukee Journal" and also wrote a novel entitled "When I Was a Little Girl". In 1921 she received a Pulitzer Prize for a play based on her book, "Miss Lulu Bett." Active in politics, Miss Gale campaigned for Robert La Follete.
     Edna Ferber, who moved to Appleton at the age of 10, began her writing career as a reporter for the "Milwaukee Journal" also. She is best known for her novels about life in America in the 1800's. Her book "Dawn O'Hara" told about the life of a Milwaukee newspaperwoman. In "Come and Get It" she described the lumberman of the Fox River Valley and in "So Big" life of farm women and their husbands were portrayed. This book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1924. The book "Show Boat" was made into a popular musical comedy.

Noted women in medicine

     Cordelia Harvey, Dr. Bertha Reynolds, and Dr. Kate Newcomb were a few noted women in medicine. Cordelia Harvey, from Kenosha, was a widow of Governor Harvey who volunteered to help Wisconsin men in the Civil War. The "Wisconsin Angel" found better ways to help the sick and wounded in poorly equipped battlefield hospitals. She was instrumental in establishment of Harvey Hospital in Madison and two others in Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien.
     Dr. Bertha Reynolds served as a dedicated physician during a tornado in 1914, and through the flu epidemic of 1918 in the rural areas surrounding Lone Rock. After 40 years of practice she retired; but was called back into service when the town's doctor was drafted into the army. She continued to practice medicine until 1953 when she again retired at the age of 85.
     Dr. Kate Newcome, the "Angel on Snowshoes", practiced medicine in the isolated areas around Minocqua. She was instrumental in building a community hospital and improving the quality of life in her area.

Active in education

     In Education, Watertown, is credited with the establishment of the first kindergarten. Mrs. Margarethe Schurz, who had studied about kindergartens in Germany under Frederick Froebel, started a German one in Watertown. Upon her return to Germany, Miss Peabody from Boston, established the first English speaking kindergarten in America.

-- Kathy Gjesfjeld
Eau Claire elementary teacher

Extracted from the Eau Claire Leader Telegram
Special Publication, Our Story 'The Chippewa Valley and Beyond', published 1976
Used with permission.