  In this essay, Cooper is responding in part to an essay by Ann Shaw with the same title. Shaw’s essay, as the title suggests, places the issue of women’s rights against the rights of American Indians. It is noteworthy that Cooper rejects exclusionary reasoning (by inference or by argument) stating, “All prejudices, whether of race, sect, or sex, class pride, and caste distinctions are the belittling inheritance and badge of snobs and prigs” (VAJC, 105). Cooper’s disdain for such thinking is thoroughly communicated. She adds, “The philosophic mind sees that its own ‘rights’ are the rights of humanity” (VAJC, 105). Cooper is denouncing oppression against all persons, “The white woman does not need to sue the Indian, or the Negro, or any other race or class who have been crushed under the iron heel of Anglo Saxon power and selfishness” (VAJC, 108).