The book proposal

[Rob Wick]

Kate,

It's hard to boil down her reasoning (even in a 12-page letter to her friend John S. Phillips, she couldn't do it very easily), but simplistically, Tarbell didn't think women having the vote would better their situations, nor did she think women could do any better in picking leaders then men could. It wasn't just in suffrage that Tarbell was contradictory. She thought a woman's first priority should be marriage, a home and raising children, yet she prayed at the age of 14 that she never have to marry. There's a book called Women Against Women: American Anti-Suffragism, 1880-1920 by Jane Camhi in which she devotes a whole chapter to Tarbell's case.

I have to admit I don't recall ever hearing Lincoln talk about the subject of women and suffrage, but there are websites which claim he made a speech as a state legislator that supported the concept. Looking through the collected works, I don't find it. Maybe someone else can.

Thanks for your kind words on my proposal. As for your project, go for it!

Best
Rob