Man Cannot Speak for Her: Volume II; Key Texts of the Early Feminists

by Karlyn Kohrs Campbell

The right to cast a ballot from a feminine hand occupied the attention and efforts of hundreds of women for more than a century in the US. In these two volumes, Campbell provides a basic understanding of two processes: the development of the rhetoric used by the women who argued for equal rights, and the constraints and sanctions applied to those women who affronted the norms of society's expectation that true women were seldom seen and never spoke in public. The first volume lays the foundation for the analysis of rhetorical style and content by its fine introduction and by a succession of chapters organized chronologically, with biographical sketches and excerpts from speeches. It includes a chapter specifically addressed to issues of sex, race, and class faced by African American women. Volume 2 is not a continuation of the first, but contains the texts on which the first volume is based. The biographical and historical sections are gracefully written and well organized, but the greatest value of the set lies in the actual words of the feminist leaders and Campbell's skillful analyses. Every women's studies program must have this available. Choice This collection of key speeches by national leaders provides a vivid and accurate documentary history of American woman's rights and suffrage movement from its beginnings in the 1840s through 1920. Offering many rare and previously unpublished selections, it brings together the work of fifteen notable reformers who played central roles in shaping and directing the movement and in articulating the diverse issues and viewpoints that characterized it. The discourses reveal the strategies used by early woman's rights advocates in adapting their appeals to varied audiences, responding to opposition, and advancing their cause in the political arena. Each of the twenty-six selections is annotated to supply historical information that is likely to be unfamiliar to contemporary readers. The earliest speeches deal primarily with anti-slavery platforms and the repressive patriarchal laws that gave men complete control over property, women, and children. Several speeches by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Sojourner Truth follow; Susan B. Anthony is represented by her famous speech in defense of her vote. Racial issues--especially lynching and Jim Crow laws--are addressed in speeches by Ida B. Wells and Mary Church Terrell. Speeches by Anna H. Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt--leaders in the fight for woman suffrage--are also included. The volume ends with an address by Crystal Eastman laying out a feminist agenda that is pertinent today. This work and its companion volume make a significant contribution to our knowledge of the early woman's rights movement and the persuasive message it brought to the American people. It is a valuable source book for an introduction to women's studies or courses in American Public Address, women's rhetoric, and U.S. women's history.

Genres: Feminism

587 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 1989

Reviews

[Nanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a compilation of key speeches spanning 1832 to 1920, the year American women FINALLY achieved suffrage. While every speech is seminal, seeing them in conversation with the long-suffering rhetorical strategizing that went on for over a century (I'm thinking back to Mary Wollstonecraft since the argument for gender equality is timeless) is enlightening. I'd never read Sojourner Truth's speeches at the 1851 Akron, OH Women's Rights Convention or her later speech as an "old" woman in 1867. I'd only heard snippets of the Grimke Sisters' moving speeches where they tie abolition to women's rights. I'd only read Ida B. Wells's "Southern Horrors" pamphlet, not the moving speech that accompanied it.

Reading Elizabeth Cady Stanton's many speeches from 1848 when she was a young woman with five children underfoot through her last speech given in 1892 at age seventy-six was truly eye-opening. She is a real-life hero! Stanton's last speech was the cherry on top, the creme de la creme, the icing on the cake (I must be hungry) for me of all the included speeches--and they were each marvelous in their rhetorical prowess, historical breadth, and wit. A page turner, IMO. ;)

Stanton's "The Solitude of Self" (1892) is widely considered a "rhetorical masterpiece because it explores the values underlying natural rights philosophy, because it responds creatively to the problems faced by social moments as their arguments become familiar to audiences, and because it still has the capacity to speak to contemporary audiences. It is also the most finished statement of the humanistic ideology underlying feminism" (371). Read it in this collection or scout it out online, but READ IT!

I am happy to have this collection in my library. The front papers include a facsimile in Stanton's own hand from a speech she gave in 1867--priceless. The typesetting feels dated, appropriately so, as the arguments and rhetors are vintage chic. I feel annoyed their speeches weren't shared with me earlier in public school. Shame. Shame. They should be part of every student's curriculum--if it were, America would be much healthier.

[Evan Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're interested in women's suffrage, this is simply a "must read." The speeches and essays in this book were clearly selected with care to form a complete picture of the history of women's suffrage in the United States, beginning long before the Seneca Falls convention. The works of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of America's truly great rhetors, are featured prominently but not without thought. One can trace the origins of the rhetoric, the splintering of the movement in the late 1800s, and then the final push for voting rights, including all the critical final efforts of Carrie Chapman Catt. Totally comprehensive with only minimal (but excellent) editorializing. Put together just perfectly.