Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Phase Four: Mulock-Craik in Conversation with Barlee

I have chosen to investigate Dinah Maria Mulock-Craik's A Woman's Thoughts about Women. Her view of the importance of the self-dependence and education of women for personal enlightenment and social advancement greatly intrigues me. I have also chosen to put part of Ellen Barlee's Friendless and Helpless in conversation with my primary text. I believe that Barlee will offer insight into the flaws of women's education and employment.

Some critical questions that the text has led me to ask are: How is the commitment to oneself, commitment to the community, and commitment to God related? How does the education of women affect their self-reliance? According to Mulock-Craik and Barlee, what are the components of a proper and practical education for women? I believe some of my main points will be how Mulock-Craik's concepts of women's education and independence disrupt the status quo and complicate the subject of gender.

Both Mulock-Craik and Barlee rely on Biblical references to disrupt constructions of the complete subservience or the complete equality of men and women. They focus on more of the notion that men and women were made for each other, rather than exactly like each other or one subservient to the other. I would like to further explore the importance of this balance in Mulock-Craik's definition of a self-reliant woman.

As for secondary sources, I have explored the possibility of using Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor. The Reading Room attendant could only find a more recent, edited version called Mayhew's London which has excerpts from London Labour and the London Poor. It offers excellent insight into the education-based reasons for the prevalence of poverty, but I would have to explore this text further before deciding on its place in my final investigation.

Mulock-Craik makes frequent use of "feminine style," especially in the concepts of empowerment, consciousness-raising, and arguments from expediency. I believe that Campbell's "Man Cannot Speak for Her" will prove useful as the primary lens in my investigation. I am also considering using Killingsworth's "Appeals to Time" and Ong's "The Writer's Audience Is Always a Fiction."

Phase Four: Taking Stock and Moving Forward-- Haldeman

During our time in the Lily, I've had the chance to look at a lot of the materials for Sarah Haldeman. The driving force behind the tasks I completed involved questions about "industrial education" for women during the early 1900s. For the final paper, I intend to further investigate what "industrial education" for women at this time really meant and what role Haldeman really played in this education. 

Many of the letters that I found in this collection will help me with this task. What I find particularly interesting is the dissonance of the values seen the letters that Haldeman received from various girls' schools and the letter she received from her mother. The letters from the different schools expounded on the way the girls learned how to cook, iron, sew, decorate, etc. All of these letters seemed to be giving Haldeman advice for how to structure the curriculum of her own school. The values seen here seem to vary drastically from the values seen in the letter from her mother. Mrs. Addams praised Haldeman for the way she raised her daughter, Marcet. However, this praise did not come for Marcet's housekeeping abilities but more for her intelligence-- as seen with the compliments Addams gives concerning the girl's letter writing skills.

Major questions I would like to investigate: What do the letters from the school imply about what industrial education was? How do the values differ from Haldeman's values? How did Haldeman receive the suggestions for her school's curriculum? Based on the dissonance seen between the letters, what role did Haldeman play in regard to this education? What did industrial education mean to Haldeman?

In addition to the information I found in the letters, I would like to find the following things:
-More models of the different schools, perhaps including what happened with Haldeman's school and if Haldeman actually took the other schools' advice
-Information concerning Haldeman's role in society (especially as a banker) and how that might effect the way she intended to teach girls / her own daughter and what she believed "industrial education" was.

Phase Four: Mulock-Craik

I have been studying Mulock-Craik’s book, A Woman’s Thoughts about Women, and I am interested in how the book works within the model of “womanly” rhetoric as well as how Mulock-Craik invites audience participation.

When I looked at the preface through the lens of Campbell’s essay Man Cannot Speak For Her, I found examples of the balance that Mulock-Craik had to find between her rhetorical aims and her feminine positions. As an author in general, was Mulock-Craik successful in maintaining this balance? I would like to research some biographical information about her as well as some critiques or reviews of her work to help answer this question.

Another aspect of feminine rhetoric is inviting audience participation. How does Mulock-Craik invite readers to participate and interact with her ideas? Who is her intended audience? Much of her writing seems to be directed toward women, but she also appeals to men. She says that her thoughts are not original and that many women have had similar thoughts. How does she appeal to readers who already agree with her views and to readers who disagree with them? I will use Ong’s essay about audience construction to analyze how Mulock-Craik constructs her audience.

I looked at another work by Mulock-Craik to try to get another view of her writing. I looked at One Year: A Child’s Book, In Prose and Verse. The book is divided into twelve sections, one for each month, and there are illustrations. There are three stories in each section, and the third story in each is a description of the typical activities in the childhood of the author and two other children. Throughout the narration of these descriptions, Mulock-Craik uses first and second person in order to establish a dialogue with the reader. I was only able to skim through the descriptions of her year, but I saw some themes that relate to A Woman’s Thoughts about Women, such as the importance of being self-dependent and of being a good Christian.

At the end of her preface in A Woman’s Thoughts about Women, Mulock-Craik says that she is sure that her book will have a good effect. I wonder if there is some way for me to get an idea of what effect her book had at the time she wrote it. Through historical British newspapers and other online resources, I hope to find references to her book to help me better understand what effect her audience construction and feminine positioning may have had on society’s response to her writings.

Task 4 - CDA's: Taking Stock and Moving Forward

Throughout studying the three letters concerning the Contagious Disease Acts, several curiosities come to mind:

First, I am interested in gaining further information about the context surrounding the Acts. What other legislation was the British government writing and passing at the same time? Were there any other acts that dealt with public health? What about laws dealing with divorce rights? Were their other industrialized countries passing similar acts?

Second, how was medicine practiced? What where the newest advances in medicine? I'd like to read some of Nightingale's work, especially something about her views of the CDA's and women's health in general.

Third, how was the church/religious beliefs a part of writing, arguing for/against, and repealing the Acts?

Although these three questions deal mainly with historical content, and not the literary and rhetorical content, I believe that understanding the historical context of these Acts will allow me to formulate a deeper and more well-informed examination of the Acts through a rhetorical lens.

For my archival project, I would like to investigate the appeals to religion - perhaps religion as a trope - and look at how religion was used to argue for/against other public health legislation in the same time period. (Probably within the same decade.)

For further investigation, I will compare religiously based moral arguments to secular moral arguments.

The three critical essays that would possibly be helpful in this project are Killingsworth's "Appeals to Time" (to look at audience contruction, assigned sociatle roles, and time as a trope - since the arguments were specific to a certian piece of legeslation at a certain time), Campbell's "Man Cannot Speak for Her" (to examine women's letters to newspapers and other types of writing to see to what extent style is dependent on rhetorical situation), and Tompkin's "Sentimental Power."

Related materials from the Lilly Library, or one of the other Bloomington libraries, will include the original contents of the Contagious Disease Acts, Miss Garret and Mr. Hill's letters, and if available other public health legeslation, some of Florence Nightingale's writings and hospital records.

Monday, March 30, 2009

some archival hints

Hi, everyone.

I've been searching for some archival hints since today's class. During Phase Two, most of you realized that the Lilly website currently provides very limited access. Thus, your best bet is to determine the type of source you are searching for and look it up on the massive card catalogue wall and/or to ask the Reading Room attendant to help you identify the type of source you are seeking. If you're feeling a bit tentative at this stage, do not panic--that's all a part of this kind of archival exploration. Explore with a vengeance(!) and remember that you're doing one of the hardest things of all: letting a critical question emerge.

Here is the detailed scope and content note on the exhibition of books related to medicine and surgery. Scroll all the way down to see the full holdings, and you'll notice that only selected images have been uploaded. You'll want to request individual items according to call number. If you are working with Florence Nightingale, these may provide interesting and relevant cultural backdrops via their images and texts, especially helping us to know what arguments formed the basis of medical practice at the time that Nightingale wrote her "Notes."

Also, if you are working on Nightingale and don't know where to focus, you might try the excerpts I identified on the archival project overview and collection list. You do not need to limit yourselves to those passages, but I started there because they seemed to represent the kinds of arguments she made.

For anyone interested in "Beauty's Triumph," Professor Cape provided me with the call number: HQ1201 .B385. It is an illustrated manuscript dated 1751 (about 100 years earlier than Barlee, Mulock-Craik, and the London Lowlife materials) but it was featured as part of an artificial collection created by Professor Cape called "Freethinkers, Reformers, and Suffragettes."

An interesting document to read alongside Mulock-Craik may be Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor: A Cyclopedia of the Condition and Earnings of Those That Will Work, Those Than Cannot Work, and Those That Will Not Work (1861-1862). This is in Box 15 of the BBC MSS portion of the "Cleverdon MSS II" collection.

The London Lowlife collection does have an extensive collection list with an item-by-item description of all 8 boxes and 4 oversized folders. The call number for this collection is DA676. If you're working with the Contagious Diseases Act and/or other 19th century texts, I highly recommend this list. The visual ephemera are so unique! You may be able to request a copy of the list--or request a copy to look at--from the Reading Room attendant. That collection may also house the Pall Mall Gazette
and W. T. Stead's Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon (on childhood prostitution). Stead's document was instrumental to the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act and to the creation of the Criminal Law Amendment Act (raising the age of consent to 16).

If you're working with Annie Besant, feel free to request and look through any of her other leaflets. The call number information is: BL2727 Box 1 Freethought Publishing Co. Items 11-27. It is a nice set of materials, but they are quite fragile and difficult to handle.

If you're working with the Haldeman MSS, there is another folder of materials that might be useful (if it hasn't already been pulled and placed with our collection). The call number information is LMC 1447 (Haldeman, Mrs. S.A., mss), Box 1. There are some news clippings about Sarah Alice Haldeman dated April 18, April 20, and April 27 1916 about her motivation to go into social betterment, about housewives economizing, and about women in banking. There is also an article dated January 4, 1907 on Haldeman's views on money and business, and a small clip called "Women and Banking" dated January 10, 1903. These items will probably have to be requested by date, since the collection list I have doesn't indicate which folder contains them. You might also look to the Haldeman MSS lists and the Mrs. SA Haldeman MSS lists to get a fuller sense of genealogy so you know who is related to whom.

For Gordimer, here is the full guide and online finding aid, as well as a general collection description. I believe in Box 4, Folder 21 marked "Early Writings" there is a kind of diary in which Gordimer kept track of and reviewed all books she had read that year.

As you find things, feel free to share with the rest of us!

-Dr. Graban

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Phase 3 Option 2

I looked at Box 4 folder 25 of Nadine Gordimer's early writings. The first story in the folder was an untitled story about WWII. This story was difficult for me to find anything that resembled her usual themes of social inequality and apartheid. However, in all of Gordimer's work she uses explicit metaphors, and lots of description. The story was of men who worked fixing the communication line during the war in Egypt. The men face a near death experience that eventually the come out of alive, however we get to witness first hand through Gordimer's writing what they were thinking and feeling and how they were preparing to die. Some of the men don't seem to care, others are concerned with strictly monetary things, and one said, "I am bitter, and I am afraid, because I know life, and i am loath to let it go" I thought that this was the most interesting statement of this short story. In my idea it breaks the norms of what Gordimer wrote about. She projects this unjust society in most of her work, but this main character seems to not want to let go of anything about it. He is constantly looking forward to getting out of the war and back to society, and wants to live his life.
The second short story I read was called "Babe". It had very obvious themes that related to apartheid. The story was of a young woman who was born from a black woman and a white Irish man in South Africa. Her mother died in childbirth and her white father raises her for awhile. The girl detests everything about her that is black. She dies her hair blond, powders her face, and paints her nails to hide their "blackness". She meets a man who treats her poorly but is none the less infatuated with her. While on vacation she catches him cheating on her with a white woman, and loses it for just a second. You hope that this is when she develops pride for herself, but she does not. The man sends her away calling her awful names. Eventually the girl finds another white man who has the same disgust/intrigue for her, and she tells herself in the mirror she isn't so bad. Gordimer uses the girl to show the horrible way some white people look upon the entire black population. They are intrigued. They need them to have a stable economy and do the work they do not wish to do--so they are intrigued by them. But a part of them despises them and believes they are all that is wrong with their society and put them down. It is an odd relationship that Gordimer has worked out perfectly between this woman and white men.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Phase 3: Option 2

In A Reply to Miss Garrett’s Letters on the Contagious Disease Acts, Mrs. W.T Malleson shows many blunt examples and arguments which show what was customary at this time. Socially, men were considered the “higher power” over women, regardless of their class, which is explicitly shown by the Contagious Acts itself. The Contagious Disease Act solely punishes women for their sexual misconduct without even looking at the fact that men, married men even are acquiring these services from these women, or prostitutes. She spoke in a very sarcastic tone on the very first page of her book, stating things such as “if the true work of our doctors is to make people, if possible, a little healthier, treating them as animals merely…; of our teachers to spread the not very satisfactory attainments of the so-called educated classes somewhat lower in the social scale; if this were so, Miss Garrett’s widely- read letter in defense of the “Contagious Disease Acts” might be as true and faithful, as it is clear and intelligent. ” Off hand, when I read this quote, I was drawn to believe that, in actuality, she was stating how ignorant and unfair the Act was, mainly to women as a whole. These are the morals in which women of their time were accustomed to.

Malleson also talked about in their days how it was considered bad taste to allude to religion out of the pulpit or the nursery, which she thought was an even more powerful operation than the CDA itself, which she obviously did not agree with and felt strongly about opposing. Malleson also pointed out how ironic Mrs. Garrett’s arguments were in so many words. She stated that Mrs. Garrett writes “In answer to the very obvious object that a law is unjust, which, in dealing with a crime necessarily common to women and men, lays its hand upon women only, Miss Garrett says “there would be force in this objection if there were any parallel class among men.” Mrs. Garrett was clearly saying that the women who receive money for prostituting form a class; conversely, she was saying that the men who give women the money for the same purpose do not! But the whole thing on both parts is an unjust act, and the object in question was to never be sold nor bought, which shows unequal legislation and adds to injustment and whose only sanction is the right of the strong to oppress the weak, meaning that men overpowered the women. Although the men and women makes the choice, in the end, women are punished but the men aren’t. Malleson appeals to the women in this situation, in this book because back then women were considered “precious” or “superior” beings and Malleson used this a lot to make it be known in her writings. Overall, she poses the women in this situation as victims by pointing out what was moral but never showing how, in the end, men and women should have both just been seen as immoral people for the acts that were occurring.

Phase 3-Nightingale

For the purpose of phase 3, I decided to work with Florence Nightingale's Notes on Matters chapter V, pages 152-162. In choosing one of the many chapters of this book of pamphlets, I first thumbed through the table of contents where each chapter is given a very descriptive title; through this I chose my chapter, which is entitled, "Further Hospital History-Notice of the first employment of nurses, of the employment of a Corps of male nurses, and of the arrival of the Sanitary Commission"-very telling title.

The organization of the chapter follows like bookwork the order in which the title tells, and the bulk (all but one page) of the chapter deals primarily with the first two years of female nurse employment abroad. In fact the chapter leads off with the breakdown of the first group of female nurses to go abroad at the orders of the War Department of Great Britain. This group of 40 women arrived abroad in November 1854 and were in compliance with the War Department's rule that Roman Catholic Nurses "should not exceed one third of the whole number" of nurses. The rules on how many nurses of certain religions had to be strictly followed and those in charge had to keep strict eye on each fleet of nurses taken abroad, as shown in the following breakdown of the first two groups of nurses:

The first 40:
  • 10 Roman Catholic Nuns of two different orders, one cloistered, one not.
  • 8 "Sisters of Mercy" of the Church of England, of two different Houses.
  • 6 Nurses from St. John's Institution, under Bishop of London.
  • 14 Nurses actually serving in different hospitals.
  • 1 Mrs. Bracebridge, who undertook the Domestic Management.
  • 1 Miss Nightingale, Superintendent.
The second 46, under the charge of Miss Stanley, Mr. Percy, and Dr. Meyer arrived December 15, 1854:
  • 15 Roman Catholic Nuns.
  • 9 Ladies.
  • 22 Nurses.
These nurses took the helm of linens, providing skilled care, presenting great moral influences on the men of the regiments, and began the practice of providing "extra-diet" for those wounded. According to the chapter, much of the provisions ran low due to poor storage and shortage of the Purveryor's store, so Florence Nightingale decided to provide an "extra-diet" for her wards which she bought (with her personal funds) at market, and was prepared and distributed by her nurses.

Though these nurses provided much good care, many rules were set in place to ensure their morals not be strayed, such as, "only six women per 100 men were 'allowed' on foreign service, except in India where 12 would be 'allowed', and none in war." Yet, the chapter points out that the women found ways around, as some had come to be married while abroad to men in the regiments. This was rare, but at the discretion of the General, some nurses wed the men they nursed back to health. Because of this, the recruiting of female nurses back in England was turned to those of lesser education who would have little to offer in marriage outside their kindness and care, or to male nurses.

The chapter, more tells of the history of female nurses abroad, rather than raising any debates, but perhaps questions could be raised as to what the Britain War Department found so scandalous about marriageable nurses marrying single army personnel? As long as it were done honestly, what was the hurt in providing the comfort of marriage to those abroad during war?

Phase 3: Trying on an Investigative Lens--Besant, option 2

In Annie Besant's "Is the Bible Indictable," she addresses two main topics: social injustice and the unfair constraints placed on medical writers. She focuses less on social injustice, but this can be seen in the fact that the "common people" (i.e. the poor) are unable to purchase any medical books that would be useful to them, since the medical books that are allowed to be circulated are very expensive. As Besant critiques, "...wealthier people, who want knowledge less, are to be protected by the law in their purchases of medical works, but if poor people in sore need, finding an 'undoubted physician' ready to aid them venture to ask for his work...the law strikes down those who sell them health and happiness." The majority of this pamphlet, however, consists of a critique against the ruling of the present Chief Lord Justice that any book that can excite its reader is indictable, regardless of the good intentions of the author. Besant's argument draws strength from the way it is organized. She begins her essay by laying out the ground rules for what qualifies a book as obscene. These factors include the price of the book (only cheap books are deemed obscene) and whether "the affect of some of its passages is to excite and create demoralizing thoughts." Once she has established the criteria for a book to be considered obscene, she advances her argument by showing how the bible could be prosecuted under these same conditions. She then proceeds to list numerous passage from the bible that could corrupt a young person's mind. Finally she ties together her argument by stating that she does not wish to prosecute the bible. Rather, she wants the Christians community to help abolish a law used against medical writers that could also be used to condemn the bible.


Two prominent rhetorical strategies Besant uses in this work is an appeal to time as a crisis and an appeal to kairos, or shared values. The crisis she identifies is that, under current law, beloved and cherished books can be condemned. For example, she writes that much of Shakespeare's work causes excitement and could thus be identified as immoral. Also, by showing that even books as sacred as the bible could be prosecuted under the present ruling of the Chief Lord Justice, she maintains that no one, not even Christians, are safe and that they must join together to fight the rule that any material that could excite its reader is obscene. Besant's use of kairos enables her to unite her audience and gain support for her cause. On such evidence of this is the quote, "and I call on those who love freedom and desire knowledge to join with us in over-ruling by statute the new judge-made laws." Clearly, someone reading this would want to consider himself to be a freedom-loving, knowledge-desiring citizen, which requires that he accept Besant's claims.


In "Is the Bible Indictable" it appears that Besant is in a debate over whether the bible can be deemed obscene. However, her use of irony helps more fully explain her stance. Besant does not really wish to condemn the bible so much as she wants to demonstrate to the reader how ridiculous the current law being used to keep medical documents from circulating is. This idea is supported by Besant's use of sarcasm. For example, she writes, "as to the motives of the writers, we need not trouble about them. The law now says that intention is nothing, and no desire to do good is any excuse for obscenity." Based on the context of this statement, it can be assumed that Besant really means the opposite. She think that the intentions of the author are important and should be taken into consideration when determining whether a book is obscene. Rather than attacking Christians and the bible, she wishes to bring the Christian community over to the side of medical writers by demonstrating how easy it would be to prosecute the bible. In this way, she establishes medical writers and christians as a unit "we" against the "them"--anyone who supports a law that would go so far as to condemn the bible. Thus, it can be concluded that Besant does not intend to prosecute the bible, but is more interested in gaining support from the Christian community for the publication of medical documents.

Phase Three: Trying on an Investigative Lens-option one

After analyzing Hapgood's "Vanishing Virtue" and No Tears for My Youth, I found some very interesting sentiments concerning both crime and virtue. I feel that oftentimes people associate virtue with what is established as being correct and moral rather than abiding by their own methods of morality. She saw that when individuals lacked courage, they lacked the ability to be their own person. In "Vanishing Virtue," she points out that one must have "the daring of the gun-man, the defiance of laws by successful politicians and the fortitude and self discipline of the early monks" in order to be courageous (1). She also attributed these attributes to virtue. Her friend John Jackson was a communist trying to stand up for what he believed in. However, when he spoke on issues concerning the unjust treatment of his fellow workers and also the unjust treatment he received from the police and the vigilantes, he was once again arrested and had his life threatened for being Communist. Though he was simply trying to support his views and explore the ideas of what it could mean to be treated equally, he was punished by individuals of "virtue" who claimed him immoral because he was a Communist. This brings into question exactly who can be considered virtuous and what crimes can be considered just. Was it fair that he was punished for holding a peaceful speech simply because he was Communist? Did those police officers and vigilantes really meet the characteristics of a person that could be considered virtuous and courageous? It seems unlikely.

Likewise, Hapgood also explores these ideas of crime and virtue in No Tears for my Youth. Sacco and Vanzetti, the two individuals on trial, speak of their cases and plead that they are still not guilty of the crimes that are charged against them. They rightfully explore the divide between the poor and rich that separates them from death and potential freedom, realizing that if they were rich, they would most likely not be sentenced to death: "I know that the sentence will be between two classes...the oppressed class and the rich class and there will always be collision between one and the other. That is what I am here today, for having been of the oppressed class. Well, you are the oppressor" (No Tears 2-3). The reader begins to realize that like the Jackson case in "Vanishing Virtue," this case also resembles one in which those individuals in the upper class appear virtuous, and therefore feel righteous in establishing what it means to commit a crime. Following this idea, Vanzetti calls attention to the fact that this war they are in is not a war that is creating any of the benefits that the "virtuous" promised: "All that they say to you, all that they have promised you, it was a lie; it was an illusion; it was a cheat; it was a fraud; it was a crime. They promised you liberty. Where is the liberty?...(No Tears 5). I feel like Hapgood is concentrating on the notion that crime and virtue are defined solely by those individuals in power at the time. The individuals being punished might not be guilty of anything other than going against the grain of what is socially acceptable. We must take into consideration that just because an individual is a minority, it does not mean they are going to commit a crime.

I feel that Hapgood uses several very effective rhetorical strategies to explore the ideas of crime and virtue. I feel that she definitely develops an emotional appeal to the audience by exploring the deeper relationship she has with the individuals in the text. This makes us feel more connected to them and therefore more willing to hear their side of the story. Also, she uses very vivid desciption to depict the scene at hand. This makes the audience feel that they can see both the speech from the bench and the trial occurring. This feeling of connectedness makes us more open to the text and the ideas being discussed. Hapgood utilizes these methods extremely well to develop her interpretation of crime and virtue.

Phase 3: Exploring Related Materials - CDA Option 2

Mrs. W. T. Malleson's response to Miss Garret clearly demonstrates several customary rhetorical strategies common to women's rhetoric in the mid to late 1800s.

Perhaps the most obvious is Malleson's appeals to the moral character and the Christian beliefs of her audience and country. Malleson's opening question is, "What is the ultimate object of all efforts for the amelioration of human ills?" (Malleson 1) She argues that Miss Garret has asked the wrong question. In her opinion, "Is this legislation necessary?" must take a back seat to "Is this legislation right?" (Malleson 5). The Acts promote the right of the strong to oppress the weak - a belief that causes blaming of the victims of prostitution: young girls and women caught in poverty.

Malleson appeals to logic in an extended if-then statement as she opens her piece - if the world were a simple and human beings merely animals, then Miss Garret's defense of the acts would be correct. However, the topic is complicated by the fact that humans have souls, and are spiritual beings.

On page 19, Malleson appeals to what is called expediency by Campbell in "Man Cannot Speak For Her." Although Malleson is not specifically calling for equal rights for women, she points out that the Acts' unfairness to women in perpetuating the "rightful supremacy of men's sensual needs" (19) and supporting a "worldly and materialistic" view of marrige is preventing women from completing men's character within the bonds of sacred marriage. In effect, Malleson is arguing for women's equality for the good of the human race and the good of society and families, instead of what Campbell calls the "Natural rights argument." (Campbell 298)

Malleson's arguments demonstrate common values in women's rhetoric also in the "feminine style" described by Campbell. Campbell has three main points about feminine style - that is arises from women's domestic situations, and consists of two parts: the presentation of grievances (why the woman decided to write on a certain topic) and the justification (why it was important that the author enter the public sphere even though she is a woman). (Campbell 297-298) Malleson's grievances include the Acts' unfairness to women, its support of men as victims rather than perpetrators, the Acts' consideration only for the physical manifestations of the disease, rather than the moral manifestations, and the public's (and Miss Garret's) refusal to bring Christian values into the picture. Her first justification for writing comes in the middle of page 4: "And now that we are fairly challenged to give a logical reason for our strong feeling, or to hold our tongues and let our diseased population be cured by wiser heads than ours, it becomes necessary that we should lay aside the double reserve of women, who prefer to ignore sin as ugly, and Christians who prefer to ignore religion as inconvenient, and acknowledge that we are different from our opponents less as to the mode of attaining a common object that the object we have at heart." She further justifies her writing by arguing that the effect of the Acts on marriage, family, and spiritual well-being will be terrible. Pages 17-21 are spent exploring the relationship between marriage situations and prostitution. Malleson argues that the superiority of men in legal marriages as well as marriage for materialistic purposes. "Marriage, when regarded as a safe outlet for man's animal propensities, not only fails its object, but renounces it's own sanctification, its inalienable obligations of reverent and self-forgetting love." Page 21 contains further justification - several arguments in favor of women's rhetoric for the purpose of a moral society.

My favorite argument that Malleson makes is at the bottom of page 8: "One may be pardoned for doubting that mercy which has to be forced upon its recipients by a strong police force; and it is still more difficult to recognize Christianity in a law which is based on the belief of the necessity of prostitution."

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Phase Three- Trying on an Investigative Lens- Nightingale

For this phase, I chose to complete option #2. Since I had already looked at Notes on Nursing, I tried to access Notes on Matters but they had a problem locating that text, so I decided to stick to Notes on Nursing since I had found it so interesting last time. I analyzed "Chapter XI. Personal Cleanliness," and got an even better grasp of the way Nightingale writes and presents her argument. This chapter discusses the need to be particularly aware of keeping the skin clean, especially while ill, by washing often and thoroughly. It also explains the importance of changing the clothes often, for the clothing of the sick quickly gets contaminated with their illness. Nightingale organizes the chapter by beginning with a few sentences broadly introducing the general argument she is making, and then going into more detail. She begins to discuss the specifics of washing, such as how hot water with soap is much more effective than cold water with soap, or water without soap. She discusses the importance of rubbing, rather than just soaking like people tend to do. A strategy Nightingale consistently uses is discussing the wrong ways to care for the sick and then comparing them to the right ways, demonstrating how the right method is much more effective.

Judging by the way Nightingale addresses these topics, she seems to be involved in two debates. One of these debates is that most people go halfway in caring for the sick, but do not go the extra mile that they need to in order to fully cure them. Another debate she seems to be involved in is the argument that people tend to think that once they are sick, all they can do is just wait it out. This is not the case, according to Nightingale- these people do not realize there are measures they can take for a much quicker and easier recovery.

A strategy from our class that is evident in Nightingale and helps to explain her argument is audience construction. Nightingale constructs her audience as those people who care for the sick or will have to at some point in their lives, particularly, it seems, parents who must care for their sick children. This is demonstrated by a lot of the ways in which Nightingale carries out her argument in this chapter, such as when she states, "Every nurse ought to be careful to wash her hands very frequently during the day." Clearly Nightingale is offering up this tip because she is writing for those who would actually be in that position.

Phase Three: Trying on an Investigative Lens-- Haldeman

For this phase of the project, I was able to read a letter from Mrs. A.H.H. Addams to her daughter, Sarah Haldeman. The letter was written on December 18th, 1908. It is handwritten by the elderly Mrs. Addams, so it is a little squiggly and hard to decipher. 

While most of the letter focuses an acquaintance who has gotten married, a friend who has died, and general concern for Haldeman's health, there are a couple sentences at the beginning of the letter that concern Haldeman's daughter, Marcet. It seems that Marcet has written Mrs. Addams a letter, which the elderly woman thoroughly enjoyed. She is also very pleased with how intelligent the girl sounds, saying, "It is remarkable in solid conclusion more like a mind of a 40 than tender twenties; you are a wise mother to have let her learnt." 

Based on this statement, it is obvious that Mrs. Addams supports education for women. Because she points out that she sounds like a woman of 40, she's praising the way Marcet wrote her letter (perhaps she used a good vocabulary, relayed intelligent information, sounded wise with the way she shaped the letter... we can't be sure). It is important to notice that she describes the minds of girls in their twenties as "tender." It seems that Marcet is not as invested in silly, frivolous things that other girls her age are typically presumed to be interested in. (Funnily enough, the first time I tried to read the messy handwriting, I thought that Addams said, "You are a wise mother to have let her love"... But clearly that didn't make sense in this context). 

Based on the reason she praises Marcet, it is clear that Addams does not necessarily value or support the idea of educating women only to be good housewives and mothers. She values solid education that will provide women with something other than the ability to clean and change a diaper. 

-Merey

Phase 3 - Mulock-Craik's preface

The preface to Mulock-Craik’s book, A Woman’s Thoughts about Women, serves as an example of a “womanly” rhetoric. She begins by saying that her thoughts are “only Thoughts” and continues to explain that they do not by themselves solve society’s problems (Mulock-Craik iii). She further says, “They do not even attempt an originality, which in treating of a subject like the present, would be either dangerous or impossible” (iii-iv). With this modest introduction, Mulock-Craik positions herself as a feminine writer by understating the persuasive power of her message. In Man Cannot Speak For Her: A Critical Study of Early Feminist Rhetoric, Karlyn Kohrs says, “speaking was competitive, energized by the desire to win a case or persuade others to one’s point of view” (295). By placing her opinions in a neutral position, Mulock-Craik is able to downplay the masculine qualities of powerful persuasion in her argument. According to Campbell, women writers had to balance their “masculine” rhetorical ideas with their feminine influence in order to create effective rhetoric (296).

Campbell also says that feminine style usually invites audience participation, which Mulock-Craik accomplishes by saying, “many women will find simply the expression of what they have themselves, consciously or unconsciously, oftentimes thought” (iv). Through this, she invites women to consider this statement and examine their own thoughts to decide whether or not they can agree. If they do agree, then they may feel that they are more than simply readers; if they have had similar thoughts as the author, then they also can view themselves as having a role in creating the writing. Mulock-Craik also connects the private roles of women with the public sphere by emphasizing the importance of “thinkers, talkers, and doers” working together (iv). In this manner, she persuades women that they can act without completely changing their lifestyles. Campbell says that with “the traditional concept of womanhood, which emphasized passivity, submissiveness, and patience, persuading women that they could act was a precondition for other kinds of persuasive efforts” (297). In her preface, Mulock-Craik sets up the premise that women can act, and act together, in order to set a persuasive foundation for the rest of her book.

In the end of her preface, Mulock-Craik both exemplifies her femininity and asserts the main purpose of her writing. Campbell says that women have been traditionally viewed as “pure, pious, domestic, and submissive” (294). Mulock-Craik says that she would not have published her book “Had it not been planned and completed, honestly, carefully, solemnly, even fearfully, with a keen sense of all it might do, or leave undone” (v). She also states that she believes it will “effect some good” and bring about a positive change; however, she says that she cannot predict how much good it will do, and she leaves it in the readers’ hands (v). Mulock-Craik’s personal, feminine tone throughout her preface positions her as a kind-hearted woman, but she is nevertheless able to assert her belief that the results of her book will be positive ones. In this manner, the preface serves as an example of the balance that women writers had to find between their rhetorical goals and their feminine positions.

Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs. Excerpt from Introduction.” In Man Cannot Speak For Her: A Critical Study of Early Feminist Rhetoric. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998. 294-299.

Mulock-Craik, Dinah Maria. A Woman’s Thoughts about Women. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1858.

Phase II--Gordimer

How I found related manuscripts...

Step 1.
I located the Lilly Library Website. It is very helpful and although it doesn't list everything the Lilly has it has most of it. I went to the collections tab and did a search of "apartheid". This is the most common theme in Gordimer's work and figured would be my best chance at finding others writing about similar topics. This returned a search of lots of Nadine Gordimer papers, but one other author named Athol Fuggard. He is a playwright who is also from South Africa, and resided in Cape Town.
Step 2.
Went to the Lilly. I asked to speak with a "reference librarian". I told her about my previous research online. I asked her if she had any other suggestions. She told me to look in the Lilly guides for my keyword apartheid--she said that some general topics have guides to where and what authors in the Lilly. Sadly, they did not have mine. I continued on with my quest of Fugard MSS. I looked in the guides to the Fugard Mss. and found that he had correspondence with Nadine Gordimer. I pulled that folder and looked at the letters from Gordimer. They seemed to be very good friends, and Gordimer was a fan of his plays and found them to be very moving. There were two letters in total, but also letters from a woman named Mary Benson who wrote Nelson Mandela's biography and was a political activist.
Fugard's work illustrates the political and social dilemmas of living under the apartheid system in South Africa. This means that I have found related materials in the Lilly and thus succeeded in my task for Phase II.

In case anyone is interested. This was found in the Fugard MSS. Box 1, Folder 10. He was born in 1932 and lived in Cape Town. Gordimer considered him a close friend and ally in their struggle against apartheid.

Phase 3: Besant with an investigative lens

For phase three I chose option one- putting a passage from one of Besant's pamphlets into conversation with a passage from Cavendish , Astell, Wollstonecraft, or Fuller. Out of Besant's two available pamphlets I choose to work with English Republicanism and decided to put that pamphlet into conversation with Fuller's Women in the 19th Century. This decision was mainly fueled by the fact that during my initial meeting with Besant's texts I already noticed some very evident similarities and differences with Fuller. 

Beginning with a recap from Fuller, whom we discussed quite thoroughly  in class, Women in the 19th Century is a polemic essay for men and women alike with the premise that can be summed up in the quote, "There is no wholly masculine man, and no purely feminine woman." (Fuller 565).  Comparing Besant's aim to Fullers, Besant is speaking to men and women with a persuasive style exigence, but does not argue for feminine values. Instead she argues for the evolution of Republicanism within England. This claim can be supported by the quote "Republics should be born of thought, not suffering; of reason, not despair; they should be slowly evolved through Reform, not burst, like Minerva-like full formed and clad in mail, from the Jove of Revolution" (Besant 3). 

Considering Besant's piece is a pamphlet, and Fuller's is an essay there are obviously going to differ in construction, but what I find interesting is that both present cultural windows within their writing, possibly to appeal to a more intellectual audience. On page five of Besant's English Republicanism she makes reference to many different cultures and their forms of government which states "no countries are more fee from disorder or violence than those inhabited by the sober, thrifty, and industrious Danes and Swiss" (Besant 4-5). Besant continues to point out to her audience that if all these countries in Europe can have what she calls "Universal Suffrage" within a Republican government than why can't England? Fuller, not necessarily arguing for universal suffrage, is however arguing for the harmony of man and women with similar cultural references. Her references do not refer to European countries, but to the Bible, Greek Mythology, and the poets William Wordsworth and Ben Johnson. Fuller frequently places Wordswoth and Johnson into conversation with her own thoughts to support her argument for the the flight of the role of women like the passage "The god's approve, the depth, but not the tumult of the soul, A fervent, not ungovernable love" (Fuller 571) is used to refer to her argument claiming that women should be more of a soul in order to stand alone in love. 

In comparing Besant to Fuller I admit I saved my most interesting find for last. I stated in the first blog post for phase one that Besant mentioned the Roman goddess Minerva in her pamphlet. If we recall Fuller's text devotes a whole section to Minerva and the Muse! Coincidentally Minerva has different connotations within each text. In Fuller's text Minerva is one of the "two aspects of Woman's nature, represented by the ancients as Muse and Minerva" (Fuller 564).  I already mentioned the quote that Minerva was included in for Besant's English Republicanism, for space purposes I am not going to repeat it, but it is located at the near top of this post. Minerva in this case is referred to a violent, war like character which is used to contrast Besant's claim that a slow change in government is necessary for England to adopt Republicanism.
 

Phase Three: Victorian Women on Women

Option One:

Marie Mulock-Craik and Ellen Barlee seem to have similar ideas on why women are good advocates for the downtrodden. Mulock-Craik specifically addresses single women when she states that they have a desire to fill the “hopeless blank of idleness” and must find – as this chapter is aptly named – “something to do” (3, 9). In general, she claims women have “needless or unattainable” duties “lying very near at hand,” where as men’s vocations generally allow them to escape the sphere of domestic matters and search for his work (14). Here, it must be noted that Mulock-Craik does not promote the equality of the sexes; in fact she claims that it is not nature’s plan, but rather that man and woman were meant to help one another. Since typical gender roles don’t give the single woman much to do, she must spend her time by reaching out to those in the community, which Mulock-Craik claims has “never at any time so much needed the help of us women” (14). She believes that women possess the tenderness and wisdom to carry out the charities and duties that God has assigned them. She believes that “pleasure is the mere accident of our being, and work is its natural and most holy necessity” (17). Mulock-Craik also believes that women are endowed with a certain selflessness, rarely thinking about themselves, and will simply “[do] what it was her duty to do” (21).

Barlee serves as an excellent supplement to Mulock-Craik’s ideas in her own conversation of one’s higher duty in life. Mulock-Craik mentions how women will fulfill their duties, while Barlee discusses the lack of respect and hospitality to the downtrodden; therefore if women do not question their given duties from their Creator, then women would make good advocates for the less fortunate. Also, in order to awaken the spiritual life of the poor, Barlee believes that all are called to “prepare the arid ground of ignorance for the reception of truth, and to watch in hope for the seed of time and harvest to appear” (9). She also believed that mothers have a good amount of respect and influence in the home, giving them the power to avoid bringing up their children in “indolent indulgence” and “false gentility,” leaving them helpless when it comes to supporting themselves in the real world (131).

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Task 2: CDA'a - Women and Public Health

Gwen C. and I (Rebekah) posted this together -


The two search options given by the Contagious Disease Acts task were looking for additional items through the London Lowlife Collection or looking into items published by the Pall Mall Gazette, with the object of finding materials on women and public health related to the three pamphlets in response to Miss Garrett.


Our first step was to do several basic keyword searches with the computerized catalog in the Lilly's Reading Room. We searched "Pall Mall Gazette" and came up with 11 items (incidentally, almost all were related to various social causes, including animal rights). Only one of the items was applicable to our topic - "Sketches from Shady Places" by John Rutherford (Pen name "Thor Fredur).


A second keyword search of "Contagious Disease Acts" lead to two applicable sources - two different government reports on the Royal administration and operation of the CDA's. Oddly enough, the earlier report, from 1871, was cataloged under "public health" as the primary topic, while a later report (1879) on the same topic, by the same people, for the same purpose, was cataloged under the primary topic of "Sexually Transmitted Diseases." This situation brings to light the importance of multiple searches, with different keywords or methods of searching, to find all the related and possibly relevant materials.


We also tried looking for the London Lowlife collection, however, nothing came up on the computer, so we may have been going about searching for this collection in the wrong way - next time we'll look in the card cataloug as well, under the subject heading "London Lowlife."

Our last, and best, result came after searching "public health" and "women" under the advanced keyword search option. We found the autobiography of Elizabeth Malleson, the author of ones of the pamphlets in the London Lowlife collection! The book included pictures, letter, and biographical information, with contributions from others as well as Malleson. It was written at the request of her children; however, it was not published until 1926 (10 years after Malleson's death), and only for private use. We looked for this same book in the card catalogs along the wall, and although we did not find any works by Mrs. Malleson, we found articles by her husband, Frederick a pastor, published in a Sabbath reading magazine.

Phase 2: Nightingale/Tuttle

Lauren Ellis and I completed this phase together.

Procedure for accessing the Tuttle Manuscript collection: 

1. Access a computer and go to the Lilly Library website and online collection lists.
2. Click on Guide to the Collections, which will appear on the left side of the computer screen.
3. Click on the category History, America.
4. A bunch of subcategories will come up on the right hand side of the screen--click on U.S. Civil War related collections.
5. The authors are listed alphabetically, so scroll down until you reach Tuttle.
6. This will take you to an information page about the Tuttle mss. collection.
-this collection is dated from 1838-1912. It includes letters from and to Elizabeth E. Tuttle (1823?-1896), who was a nurse and teacher in Colebrook, Ohio. She volunteered as a nurse during the Civil War, and a few of her letters address her experiences on the battlefield of Antietam. She also wrote about establishing hospitals at Harper's Ferry and at Gettysburg. The only other author in this collection is Ira Norris Noland, a physician who married Tuttle's niece. Among the materials concerning Noland is his certificate of membership in Company K (the 196th regiment Ohio infantry), social letters, and his diary, which includes information about his Civil War experiences.
7. Look to see how big the collection list is (119 items).
8. There is no call number because the collection consists of manuscripts, so it is necessary to request a manuscript collection form, which is pink and will be provided by the reading room attendant.
9. On the pink slip, indicate the author's name you are interested in and the collection list. If the collection list includes more than a couple hundred items, specify the particular items of interest.
10. Turn this slip into the attendant and wait patiently for him/her to bring you the requested manuscript collection.
 

Phase Two: Victorian Women on Women

Finding a related resource to the Victorian Women on Women collection:

Mulock-Craik mentions the Edinburgh Review, so we wanted to search for a resource related to that. We went to the IU Libraries webpage and clicked on IUCAT. We limited the search to the Lilly Library and put Edinburgh Review in the title. We found a book titled Critical and historical essays, contributed to the Edinburgh review by Thomas Babington Macaulay published in 1852. We found the call number, which is PR463.A1. We also looked in the card catalogue in the Lilly Reading Room. There are drawers with green labels for manuscripts and with white labels for books. We looked up Macaulay in a drawer with a white label to find the call number and information for the book we wanted. To access this book, we would then fill out a white request slip with the title, author, and call number to give to the reading room attendant. If we had found the book on IUCAT when we were not at the Lilly Library, we could have e-mailed liblilly@indiana.edu asking them to hold the book so that it would be available when we came to the reading room.

- Nicole and Mollie

Phase 3- Contagious Disease Acts

Option 2: Look more closely at “Mrs. Malleson’s Reply”

1) How can the topics and arguments she offers inform us of what was customary at the time?
Mrs. Malleson makes several arguments that show the reader what was customary and socially acceptable at the time. The overarching social problem seems to be, in Mrs. Malleson’s opinion, the unconditional power men have over all women. She points out several problems that come from this. The first is that the Contagious Disease Acts only punish the women who are prostitutes, not the men who use their services. She points out that men have so much power they can use these women and never suffer consequences. While the prostitutes may have a certain degree of responsibility for the spread of venereal disease the men who are their clients have more responsibility. Not only are they catching the diseases themselves, they have the potential to spread it amongst other prostitutes and they could also take the disease home to their innocent wives and children. Mrs. Malleson says that while prostitution is certainly immoral the men, not just the women, need to be held responsible.
According to her there were no real consequences for men who used prostitutes, not only could they not be punished by law, their wives could not leave them. At this time only men could ask for divorce and they could ask for it for one episode of infidelity by their wives. The women on the other hand could know of countless episodes of unfaithfulness and could not leave the situation. This posed a problem for them because they were essentially required to meet their husband’s sexual needs in marriage, but by doing this they were at risk of getting a venereal disease from their husbands.
This fact that upstanding women could end up with a disease because of unfaithful husbands probably helped to fuel another concern of those opposed to the contagious disease acts. This concern was that men in power would abuse their power over women and upstanding women would be punished for their disease as much as prostitutes. She said that so far this has not seemed to happen but the potential is there because the power men have over women is complete.
Mrs. Malleson does not believe the contagious disease acts are the best solution to the problem of prostitution and venereal disease. She believes that forcibly examining and treating these women is simply treating a symptom of the problem rather than the cause. She believe that women need to be educated so they can be independent from the power men have over them and consequently be free of the immoral influence of men. She also believes that women need to have more opportunities for honest work so that they can make a living without needing to rely on a man. She points out that this would not only help women who are considered prostitutes by society but also women who she believes participate in a form of socially acceptable prostitution. She believes that the way women must use themselves to get a man to marry them and provide for them is simply another form of women selling themselves.
2) How can the way she develops her critique demonstrate certain tropes or strategies that were valued in women’s public discourse?

Mrs. Malleson uses her position as a woman, and therefore a supposedly more pure and moral human to argue her points. She often says that the reader should not look at whether the legislation is necessary but whether the legislation is right (i.e. moral). At this time it seems that (most) women were considered morally superior beings and Mrs. Malleson uses this belief to her advantage. Not only does she paint herself as speaking from a position of morality, but she also paints prostitutes as victims of immorality by men rather than intrinsically immoral people. When she uses this position of speaking about morality it allows her to communicate in the public sphere without losing her femininity. If she were to argue this from a scientific standpoint with less discourse of morality she may have been considered un-feminine and therefore would have lost any credibility she had on the subject. She manages to maintain her identity as a woman throughout which allows her to discuss moral implications of prostitution with some authority because she is a woman and therefore a supposed guide to morality.

I find it interesting that Mrs. Malleson was able to voice this opinion and apparently be a married woman. I wonder if her husband had some objection to this or if maybe she had a rather untraditional sort of marriage for the time? I also wonder how difficult it was for her to attack men as immoral being without compromising herself?

Contagious Disease Acts Phase 2- RaQuell and Alex

Alex, and RaQuell
We got into the reading room, signed in and looked up the contagious disease acts in the catalog card. The card was in drawer 166 called “Loesser-Londres,” it was under the section “London (ENG.)—Poor.
Then we asked a man working in the reading room for the collection list and he found the list for us which has the texts listed by box, folder and name. We looked through the list and in box two there were many texts on the contagious disease acts.
We decided to ask to see item 21 which was called “The National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Disease acts, Fund for the Aid and Defense of Women. Attachment: Subscription form and Statements Why all Christian Men and Women Should Help the Cause of Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts.”
We filled out a request card with the call number DA676, box number 2, item 21, the title of the texts, and our names, and then gave the request card to the woman behind the desk. They found it brought it out to us and we were able to examine the text.

Phase 2 Haldeman

This phase of our archival work was interestingly confusing. My first goal was to find the manuscripts collection on Sarah Haldeman and then I had to find some sort of related material that was in a different collection. I utilized every aspect of the library from the cards to IUCAT this is my way to long process for finding the material.
1.) First I searched online on IUCAT thinking that I would find my collection right away, however it was not online. 
2.) Next I looked in the manuscript collections description book, which is located in the back left of the reading room, and found my collection, and every other person with the same last name, this helped me because I could get an understanding of what would be in each box which in turn allowed me to narrow my search for related material. The description book obviously described what was in each box making it easy to find related topics.
3.) next was locating the collection in the index cards, I wanted to be able to find anything just incase next time I come here the collections are not out I will be able to access the information.
4.) Once I found my collection I got on IUCAT and searched for my related material. I used an author search and found Jane Addam's "long road to women's memory"
 Getting started was probably the hardest part because at first everything seemed so overwhelming because of the sheer size and magnitude of this library, however once I had a handle on finding information everything was cake.

Charles Jeffrey

Phase Two: Exploring Related Materials-- HAPGOOD

For this phase of the assignment, we were "tipped off" to find information on materials called "Hapgood-- Sacco-Vanzetti". We used the Lily website to find this. Then, we needed to look up collections on local labor leaders for the 1930s. This is the process we used to find these materials:
1) We used the computer in the reading room to utilize IUCAT.
2) We proceeded to type in a few different search options, which produced irrelevant results.
3) We then narrowed our search down to include only materials found at the Lily, as opposed to ALL libraries.
4) We did a key word search of "The Works Progress Administration" and found pertinent materials. 
5) We then eliminated search results that weren't relevant (such as a document about Shakespeare)
6) We found a document about the WPA in the 1930s. The document was titled "Homeless, friendless, and penniless: the WPA interviews with former slaves living in Indiana" by Ronald L. Baker. Call Number: E444 .H66 2000. The "note" section says that the document is "from interviews conducted in the 1930s by fieldworkers of the Federal Writers' of the Works Progress Administration."
7) We wrote down the title, author, and call number; handed the slip to the individual at the reference desk. He then sent up for the material. 


-Merey Shell, Laura Strodtman, Cara Bushemi

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Campbell Discussion option 2

Laura Mann's timeline was the most organized and thought out of the the three, even though it does not cover as much time as the "History of the American Suffrage movement". Based on our class discussion I felt that starting with Abigail Adams was the right approach because her attempts to help the movement seem ineffectual however they still made the federal government wary about making a law for or against it, therefore they left it up to the states. In 1807 women lose their right to vote in the state of New Jersey which had the most progressive views on allowing women's rights. 

Mann's timeline is useful because of the divisions she places within it to show how the movement switches its approach or appeal. Their first change is by making an alliance with the Quakers. This is smart because Quakers have strong views on equality before other groups.  They also utilize anti-slavery sympathizers because they argue that women and slaves a like are humans and should be allowed a voice (freedom). The next switch that they have is that women begin to organize nationally spreading their ideals about equality. In 1850 women are holding national conventions however by 1861 Susan B. Anthony declares the movement be put on hold until the end of the Civil war. The next change in their approach is when women who are not granted the right to vote while the freed slaves whom they were trying to help are. This sparks a division between black suffrage and women suffrage because blacks finally have their foot in the door and are trying their hardest to push it open so they can utilize the protection of the constitution. Some of the new territories are allowing women to vote while other states ignore ballots cast by women. Now it seems that women must act out of the ordinary to make a point since they have been ignored. Women speak out at conventions sign petitions and do things against the norms of their society to point out how they have been wronged. In the 20th century is when things come to a boiling point. Women are beginning to be put in prison while slowly states are beginning to grant suffrage. President Wilson brings the appeal to congress who pass it with 2/3 vote while the senate declines it by 2 votes. finally in 1920 the Susan B. Anthony amendment is ratified.

Reading Response:

Analyzing Campbell's description of the struggle for the women's right to speak in public we see a common threads that women who spoke publicly were unpious or masculine. Campbell argues that women faced many more difficulties when speaking than med were challenged with. Women who spoke publicly were "strong" women who must offer up an argument and be able to support it and appear knowledgeable. Since women were smaller and less stable, if a woman got excited or passionate about a topic she risked losing her credibility. Women's styles of writing could contradict because of this. This is why they were required to justify every claim that was made.  

Campbell Discussion

OPTION ONE:

Based on the text given, I could definitely tell that the "Declaration of Sentiments" document was meant to inspire women and be used as a source for the woman's rights movement. Many of the figures noted in the text were extremely important in facilitating the woman's rights movement. This document was a call to women to come and listen to both men and women fights for the fair and just treatment of other activists. The public, mainly ladies, were encouraged to join the convention (1). This text was certainly designed to inspire women, and sympathetic men, into action.

At the beginning of the text, the creators of the "Declaration of Sentiments" play off of the "Declaration of Independence" very wittily: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal..." (2). This insertion of this singular word completely changes the context of original piece and forces the reader to realize that it is absurd that women were not included in the assertions of equality. This document brings to light the unjust treatment of women and how they have been forced into subordination for far too many years. Also, they bring up the point that when a government is no longer appropriately working towards the common good of all mankind, it is the public's right to refuse allegiance to it (2). They make it clear that when the government is not including all of the people in fair treatment, it is politically incorrect and unjust. These individuals feel that it is time for women to no longer be second class to men in not only society in general, but also to the government.

The rest of the text concentrates mostly on the equal and fair treatment of women and the atrocities that have been forced upon them for years. They discuss all of the things that women have no been able to do simply because they are women. Basically, it lists all of the things that men have kept women from doing over hundreds of years, yet have allowed themselves to do for that same period of time. They are calling attention to the fact that this treatment is extremely unfair and that women deserve to have the same rights as men. This document was used to inspire individuals to realize that it is time for something new-for something better for women.

The word that I chose to look up was "woman." I Thought that it would be interesting to see how it was used in texts. In one specific text by Mrs. E. L. Rose, she uses woman in a very powerful way: "WOMAN is rising in the full dignity of her being to claim the recognition of her rights. And though the first public demonstration has been here, already has the voice of Woman in behalf of her sex been carried as it were on the wings of lightning to all parts of Europe, whose echo has brought back the warmest and most heartfelt responses from our sisters there" (Mrs. Rose's Address 4). I feel like this is a very empowering use of the word "woman" and definitely differs from the typical way it is inserted into texts in a negative way.

READING RESPONSE:

I feel that Karlyn Kohrs Campbell really took into consideration a variety of aspects in order to better understand women's speaking and writing. I think that she definitely understands that men were always the ones that are expected to speak, write, and be politically active. This means that because men are the ones that are supposed to be doing these things, it is odd and different when a woman wants to participate. Her place is supposed to be inside the home, taking care of the domestic problems of the household. She is not supposed to be speaking her mind through public displays of speaking and writing. We definitely have to look at how this notion affects the ways in which women spoke and wrote during that time period. For instance, Emma Hart Willard had to remain seated when she presented "A Plan for Impoving Female Education" to make sure that the men did not think she was trying to give a speech. It is incredible to think that just because she was sitting down, they would consider her, but if she stood up, they would immediately take offense to it. Women definitely had to walk the gender-fence in order to speak their minds, yet still be heard. I think Campbell was definitely aware of this.

Campbell Discussion

Option 2:

Laura Mann’s timeline starts in 1776 with Abigail Adams writing to her husband asking him to remember the ladies while he is at the continental congress. She points out how in the following years women lost the right to vote in all states finally ending in 1807 when New Jersey revoked the right for women to vote.

She then goes onto divide her timeline into sections starting with “women join the abolitionist movement,” then “women begin to organize for their own rights,” next “suffrage movement divides of black vs. woman suffrage,” “civil disobedience in tried,” and finally “suffrage activists enter the 20th century.”

The way she divides these sections very clearly shows how the movement for women’s rights was closely interwoven with the fight to end slavery, and then for black men to vote sometimes ignoring their own fight for women’s rights. Her timeline focuses primarily on the fight for the right to vote and does not discuss much else. Eventually in 1920 women obtain the right to vote with the 19th amendment and Laura Mann’s timeline ends there.

Like Mann’s timeline the NAWSA time line starts in 1776 with Abigail Adams writing to her husband asking him to remember the ladies. This timeline is not clearly divided up into sections like Mann’s and seems to have a slightly different focus. Although women’s suffrage is definitely important there is a greater focus on their gains in education and publishing when compared to Mann’s. The NAWSA timeline also mentions quite a few events where women’s rights and African American’s rights intersect.

The third timeline, A History of the American Suffragist movement, starts earlier than the previous two with Ann Hutchinson being expelled from the Massachusetts community in 1637, and then the founding of the Quakers in 1652. This one also goes onto mention Abigail Adams writing to her husband, obviously a very important moment in women’s rights history. It goes onto offer a perhaps more balanced view of events combining both the right to vote and the educational accomplishments of women better than the other two in my opinion. This one like the other two end in 1920 with the right to vote.

This makes me wonder if as soon as women could legally vote people assumed the fight for women’s vote was over. It seems to me that even if they had the legal right there might have been some social constraints that would have kept women from the polls that would have needed to be addressed later. I honestly do not know what the numbers are like today but I’d be willing to bet from 1920-1950 at least fewer women than men voted simply because they thought their proper place was still the home, and I wonder if even in more recent history if wives would vote for whoever/whatever their husbands voted for because it was a public rather than private issue.


*** I could not see the other timeline, it told me it was password protected and I would need to log on to see it. Sorry if I missed something.


Campbell Discussion:

I think Campbell considers the style female writers of the time took and why they used this style. She calls it a feminine style of writing (or speaking) but not necessarily employed only by females. This style of writing seemed to almost contradict itself in some ways because women wanted to present their arguments for more rights or better education, but at the same time if they spoke out forcefully they would be labeled unfeminine and therefore lose any possible credibility they had in the eyes of their audience. This required women to present their argument but then come up with a justification for being able to argue this. Sometimes this justification could end up rather contradictory such as the argument for women to have better education because then they could be better mothers and wives. While education in and of itself is a good thing, if women are only being educated to then continue their domestic lives is that really much of a positive change?

Campbell Class Discussion

All four timelines are very different even though they are structured around the same movement- Women's Suffrage. While looking at the first time line Laurie Mann's Timeline of Women's Suffrage in the United States, the beginning seemed identical to the One Hundred Years of Suffrage timeline. Both begin in 1776 with Abigail Adams'  Remember the Ladies letter to John Adams. Although quickly distinguishing the two is the structure of  Laurie Mann's Timeline of Women's Suffrage in the United States. Mann organizes her timeline by themes for each chunk of time that passes. Her timeline also includes the deaths of important women within the suffrage movement. Although this time line includes dates for many of the important points during the movement, Mann's details of each event are not very specific. The timeline ends in 1923. 

The second time line "One Hundred Years Towards Suffrage" (Hosted by NAWSA) begins at the same time as Mann's, as I stated before. What distinguishes this time line from the others is the fact that this one is organized by 3 sections of dates. Most of the information included in this timeline is based on literature and speeches made during the Women's Suffrage time period. It resembles Mann's time line in the fact that there is not much elaboration on each event and does not go into much depth when it comes to discussing how the government played a part in Women's Suffrage.
 
"History and the American Suffragist Movement" begins earlier than the previous two timelines. Beginning at 1637 with Annie Hutchinson this timeline is already showing that it's going to go into more detail. The information included in this time line is a mix of the first two time lines, including literature as well as government influence in the movement. This timeline ends with the Ohio Legislature case Hawk v. Smith and includes more government and state actions than the previous two. 

The last and probably most informational of the three timelines is the Women and Social Movements in the United States timeline. This timeline begins in 1774 with the Edenton Ladies Patriotic Guild. This timeline is very detailed and paints a different kind of analysis of the Women's Suffrage movement through the use of social movements (big or small) and not so much individuals. In this timeline I got the sense that they want us to know that the Suffrage movement was a collective stand with women towards equality. One other notable difference from this timeline compared to others was the fact that it spans all the way to 1992 and possible even beyond. Could this signal that women are still fighting for certain rights today? 

Reading Response 
Campbell wants us to discover the ways in which women wrote at the time of the early Women's rights movement. She calls this the "feminist style" and claims that it was adopted to "cope with the conflicting demands of the podium" (Campbell 296). The podium she is referring to is the oral podium that women at the beginning of the movement tried to fulfill through speeches. Although their aim to educate through oratory word was rejected by men who deemed a women who met all the speech requirements as "Masculine, and Unwomanly" (Campbell 296). Some of the qualities that Campbell describes in her introduction include relying on personal experiences, antidotes, and a personal tone (Campbell 297). She also claims that to get a fuller sense of feminist text we must remember that women learned to do things with out a formal education and usually though error, thus they learned to "adopt variations" to hone in on their desired craft of writing (Campbell 297). 

Women's Suffrage Timelines/Campbell Discussion

Given the multifaceted nature of the women's suffrage movement and its tendency to be almost inspearably entwined with other movements, such as the temperance movement, it is not surprising that each timeline emphasizes various parts of the movement. The organization of each time line, in particular, reveals varying representations of the movement.

Laurie Mann's timeline breaks the women's suffrage movement into categories characterized by the types of social action used at the time - first organizing women against slavery, then for their own rights, the division in the movement of black suffrage vs. women's suffrage, the beginnings of civil disobedience, and pickets and protests of the 20th centruy. She begins her timeline with Abigail Adams, and the choronicals the years in which women's votes were rescinded by many states, and by 1807 each state had passed legeslation forbidding the female vote. I found this very interesting as was completely surprised that early in US history female could indeed vote. This also explains why the women's vote movement became prominent after the turn of the 19th century.

The NAWSA "One Hundred Years" timeline focuses more on educational and literary events than does Mann. This timeline also include more about African American women's roles in the movement, including Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Ida Wells-Barnett. The timeline continues a few years past the 1919 amendment, implying that although suffrage was gained, the women's movement did not stop there.

"A History..." begins much earlier that the previous two - Anne Hutchinson is the first woman introduced, rather than Abilgail Adams. This timeline emphasizes women's rights conventions, property rights, and schisms in the movement over slavery, women's suffrage vs. total suffrage, and conservatism vs. progressiveness within the movement.

All three of the above timelines show the major connections between the suffrage and temperance movement: yet, the suffrage movement was often held back for fear that it women could vote, they would ban alcohol. I found this ironic, considering that, as Campbell writes, women were supposed to be morally superior and many argued that allowing women to vote and participate in politics would "clean up" the scene.

The fourth timeline is quite unique in structure: it in organized as a sort of dictionary of social movments in which women were involved in some way - not necessarily just suffrage movements. I found this very helpful to augment my understanding of the other three - since it is not in chronological order, it is limited in it's helpfulness of understanding the progression and evolution of the women's rights movement, but it provides greater detail and a broader scope in which to examine suffrage, especailly in relationship to other social movements.

After reading all four timelines, I was interested to see that each included dates when Western states enfranchised women...and how many more years it took for the East Coast to jump on the bandwagon. It seems that the West US was far more progressive and the East Coast more conservative, which is generally opposite of today's political map.

Reading Respose: Campbell "Man Cannot Speak for Her"

Campbell's critical study of women's rhetoric begins with the denial of women's ability to speak publically. She considers the definitions of "feminine," the concepts of "true womanhood" and the "cult of domesticity" in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and why these ideas conflicted with the possibilty of female orators. She oints out that although women were supposed to have more moral sensitvity that men, they were forbidden to speak out against the immoralities of slavery and prostitution, and out of this contradiction came the women's movement.

Campbell also considers the effects of limited educational and limited occupations for women on the rhetorical styles that resulted - the voice, tone, and audience construction she sees as direct results from the craft-learning style of teaching and culture the women experienced.

Her final major sources for critical study are the two main types of arguements for women's rights: the "natural rights" vs. "expedincy" - the natural rights argument was percieved as morr threatening because it proposed that women and men were, indeed, equal and capable of the same things. The other arguement proposed that because women and men were different, women's rights would aid their abilities as wives and mothers, and thus further aid society.

Campbell asks the reader to consider how the obstacles of the women's rights movement still affect today's women, as well as how this illuminates rhetorical devices of modern female writers. She also asks the reader to consider the interaction between the scholarly study and the study as a feminist of this movement.

Campbell Class Discussion & Required Reading Response

Option: 2

Each timeline were signifactly alike in many ways and notably different in others. Laurie Mann’s Timeline of Women’s Suffrage in the United States and “One Hundred Years Towards Suffrage” (hosted by NAWSA) both started in 1776 with Abigail Adams's letter to her husband. A History of the American Suffragist Movement timeline started much earlier in 1637 with Anne Hutchinson being convicted of sedition and expelled from the Massachusetts colony for her religious ideas. Next this timeline went on to 1652 with The Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers, which were founded in England. Quakers then made vital contributions to the abolitionist and suffrage movements in the United States. One Quaker woman, Mary Dyer, was hung in 1660 for preaching in Boston, then it went on to talk about Abigail Adams's letter to her husband. I thought this was ironic because the other two timelines did not include these historical facts. The final timeline, Women and Social Movements was formated differently from each of the three other timelines. It was very descriptive and did not have each event listed yearly, yet it had paragraphs about each movement mostly occuring during the 19th-20th century.

Mann's timeline was catorgorized into 6 sections started in 1776 and ending in 1920. It gradually shows how women began to get more and more rights, ending with The Nineteenth Amendment, called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment being ratified by Tennessee on August 18. It becomes law on August 26.

One Hundred Years toward Suffrage as I previously stated starts with Adams writing her letter to her husband as well, yet it ends in 1923 with The National Woman's Party first proposes the Equal Rights Amendment to eliminate discrimination on the basis of gender. Furthermore, it has never been ratified.

The WASM timeline was uniquely different as well.This timeline also describes other movements that not in the other timelines, such as anti-sweatshop and anti-feminist. Each timelines is alike in many ways but different in others, but they are all unique in showing how women and their rights have progressed throughout the centuries.


Required Reading Response:

Campbell starts off her argument by showing how Women struggled for the right to speak. She stated "in the 19th century America, femininity and rhetorical action were seen as mutually exclusive. No "true woman" could be a public persuader. (Campbell 294). She stated things like true speakers, back then took stands aggressively, initiated action and called ttention to themselves which were not seen as values in women or one's that they should possess. Activities requiring such qualities as then were though to "unsex" women.

Furthermore, when women did have the courage to speak publicly they had to downplay their selves to sort of defuse the illusion of giving a speech, in order not to be critized or ridiculed.

Women were stuck with having to prove themselves as good speakers and equal on the same level as men, while including the aspect of femininity in their rhetoric to prove their quality as speakers. In the earliest periods, most advotactes believed that women were naturally suited for mothers, or wives but increased opportunities and rights produced that "education would make women more virtuous, increased economic rights for married women, and would produce better mothers."(Campbell 298)

Campbell Class Discussion

Option Two:


The "Table of Contents: Social Movements" is a lot more general than the other "Timeline" we are given. The "timeline" gives us a more concise idea of how the movement went. It started at the beginning of our country in 1776 with Adams asking her husband to remember the ladies, and shows how after power for women to vote was given to the states--they all eventually revoked the right from women to vote. This timeline continues into the 1920's--with women helping in the abolitionist era, and then organizing to fight their own battles. Women try Civil Disobedience starting with Susan B. Anthony, and continue this until President's finally get on board and put women's suffrage on their platforms. In 1920 a law is passed called the Susan B. Anthony Law.

The second "Table of Contents" is not in chrnological order which was very confusing for me. It brought up many other issues as well though, some leading into 2000. This table also talked about the age of consent movement which I found interesting as well as the American Birth control league in the 1920's which I never knew existed. It is also showed how women's suffrage was not taken up by the federal government for a long time, but discussed in a state by state fashion with Indiana being listed as well.


Reading:

Campbell wants us (the readers) to take a look at the way feminist writing was done in the past. She talks about how it was different than it is now, and that it is not restricted to just women writing it. Men can write in this particular style as well. She tells us that women would be looked down on if they wrote in a forceful loud nature and be discredited and put in a feminist category, but if they were reasonable this is the type of style they would use.

Campbell Class Discussion

OPTION 1:

The document "Declaration of Sentiments" clearly served as a focus point for the woman's rights movement. According to the bibliography, this was written for "the first convention ever called to discuss the civil and political rights of women." This woman's rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York on July 19th and 20th of 1848. As mentioned in a footnote that is listed on the page, "The movers of this convention, who drafted the call, the declaration and resolutions were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Mary Ann McClintock, and Jane C. Hunt" -- all notable figures in the early woman's rights movement. The bibliography also indicates that the document includes the subjects of women's rights, the United States, and Congress. Based on this information provided in the bibliography alone, it is obvious that the document "Declaration of Sentiments" involves a call for the rights of women, presented by women and for women.

The first page of the document is actually a call for women to attend this convention. The call was published in the Seneca Country Courier a few days before the convention was used as an invitation. As promised in this notice, the convention was held "to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman" (1). Women were"earnestly invited to attend" the first day of the convention, while "the public generally are invited to be present on the second day" (1). This invitation also points out that on the second day, both "ladies and gentlemen will address the convention" (1). 

The rest of the document advocates equality for women. The author uses a strong driving force to argue her point by bringing up the Declaration of Independence. She quotes the Declaration, stressing the opening lines which indicate that mankind has unalienable rights. She then calls the audience's attention to the fact that women do not receive these rights and now it is necessary for women "to demand the equal station to which they are entitled" (2). She provides lists of all the ways women have been denied the rights that have been guaranteed under the US government. At the conclusion of this section, we see that "this declaration was unanimously adopted and signed by 32 men and 68 women" (4) . The document then lists the resolutions that came about because of this call to action. 

The word that I chose to search was "feminism." During the time between 1848 and 1921, many negative connotations of this word stayed the same. According to B.V. Hubbard in the section "Feminism Defined" of Socialism, Feminism, and Suffragism..., "Feminism advocates 'votes for women,' and all Feminists are Suffragettes" (143). He also argues, "She declares that 'motherhood' animal function... frowns on 'compulsory' motherhood and advocates the 'control of births' by artificial measures" (143). This idea resonates through many articles, and some similar ideas can still be seen today. It is interesting to think of what initial ideas people have even today when they hear the word "feminism." It seems to me like many people still believe that feminists are men hating, motherhood denouncing, lesbians (in extreme cases).

READING RESPONSE:
In her introduction, Campbell believes that we need to take into consideration the idea that women are stepping out of their sphere (private, home life) whenever the speak or write. Because it seems that men are associated with the competitive, political, and public realm outside the home, women are acting manly by putting their ideas out there through speech or writing. In this way, it is almost like women have to breech socially accepted norms in order to be heard. As Campbell points out, this resulted in the formation of female groups which "initiate[d] a movement for woman's rights" (295).  I think that Campbell takes these things into consideration when trying to get a fuller sense of women's speaking. Since it is seen as almost a radical idea for women to be acting 'outside the home' in this way, we must understand how a woman's speaking/writing style may be different from men.