Glimpses of Fifty Years (Abridged, Annotated)

Book excerpt: "Woman, like man, should be freely permitted to do whatever she can do well." So said Frances E. Willard, who lived her life in the firm belief of this principle and who was instrumental in the passage of two amendments to the U.S. Constitution. A passionate advocate for women's rights, prohibition, and underprivileged people, she was devoted to making federal aid to education, free school lunches, unions, the eight-hour work day, work relief for the poor, municipal sanitation and boards of health, national transportation, anti-rape laws, and protections against child abuse a reality. This long-forgotten and out-of-print book is available for the first time for e-readers. In Willard's own words she describes her life as an educator, temperance reformer, and suffragist. She was an educator and later president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union She traveled extensively and even climbed the Great Pyramid in Egypt. Her sexual orientation is still debated today but she states in this volume: "The loves of women for each other grow more numerous each day and I have pondered much why these things were. That so little should be said about them surprises me, for they are everywhere... In these days when any capable and careful woman can honorably earn her own support, there is no village that has not its examples of 'two hearts in counsel,' both of which are feminine." She had many passionate attachments to other women and she discusses this in her book. Willard was the first woman whose statue was included in the Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol building. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE or download a sample.