The book proposal

[Rob Wick]

I made mention the other day of a 12-page letter Tarbell wrote to John S. Phillips about women's suffrage. Here's a link to the letter so those interested can read it for themselves.

Best
Rob

https://dspace.allegheny.edu/handle/10456/24116

[My Name Is Kate]

At least she tried to be honest with herself and admitted that she could be wrong, so she should not stand in the way of women who did want the vote. She believed that woman's role as wife and especially as mother were the greatest roles anyone could have because those roles exerted the most civilizing influence on the world, greater than any man's role could do (yet she prayed that she might never have to marry). She was disillusioned with the women of the French Revolution, especially Madame Roland, because in the political arena they seemed no better morally than men. So why not just stay out of politics and stick with their God-given role which women alone could perform.

Reading between the lines, she was not so much a woman against women, as a woman who did not want anyone, men or women, to cast doubt on the sacred role of women as the "angel in the house." She probably had doubts about her own ability to fulfill that role, and if she never married, then she would not have her doubts confirmed. If women stayed out of politics, even so far as voting, then she might never have to admit that they may not be morally superior to men.