Women, Men and Suffrage Nancy Kohlhoff, Valparaiso branch (Ed
Note: This is the sixth in a series of our exclusive publication
of the manuscript written by Nancy after much research to fill
in the gaps left by history books when dealing with women’s
issues and their struggle to gain the vote.) The movement for
woman’s rights which was entangled with abolition from the
beginning of the century had no impetus until Elizabeth Stanton
took the lead. She was not the first to "analyze critically the
plight of women and enumerate the changes needed to raise them
from domestic servitude" to positions of equality with men. But,
unlike most other reformers, Elizabeth believed reform must
include more than the vote and property rights for women. She
wanted to collapse the patriarchy, to remove the very
underpinnings of entrenched social and religious customs. That
was enough to keep her in conflict most of the time with
relatives, friends and enemies. In her letters, articles and
speeches, Elizabeth boldly stated contra