Elizabeth Cady Stanton, suffragette, THE SOLITUDE OF SELF” SPEECH 1892 

"A woman, an equal factor in civilization, her rights and duties are still the same— individual happiness and development." 

-Elizabeth Cady Stanton, suffragette, THE SOLITUDE OF SELF” SPEECH TO THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE” (18 FEBRUARY 1892).

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American suffragette. {Suffragettes were anti-slavery abolitionists and I've read many interesting newspaper articles about them taking up African American male cause which divided them. Stanton was for it but Susan B. Anthony was not and said she'd rather "cut off her arm" then do it because she really wanted to focus on women and not men.} She spoke of solitude she experienced on a climb of the Swiss Alps and woman's phases in life, her individuality, and right to education in her speech. Her concerns included women's parental and custody rights, property rights, employment and income rights, divorce, the economic health of the family, and birth control.[3] She was also an outspoken supporter of the 19th-century temperance movement.

Here is Stanton's speech "Solitude of Self" it is really worth reading she talks about a woman's RIGHT to individual happiness and higher education. She says it is a "birthright to self-sovereignty." My favorite part of the speech is this: 

"In discussing the rights of woman, we are to consider, first, what belongs to her as an individual, in a world of her own, the arbiter of her own destiny, an imaginary Robinson Crusoe with her woman Friday on a solitary island. Her rights under such circumstances are to use all her faculties for her own safety and happiness."

To me, this speech is so fascinating because it is a particularly "female" speech. It's not boring, dry, and it discusses women's hearts and souls. She ties women's rights to being a "birthright" and if you think about it, whether you believe in God or not, it's true. She does not invoke God, does not say "divine right" but says "birthright." I like that expression. It *is* our birthright.

Here she expresses a uniquely female, motherly concern and brings it into what is relevant. To me, this strikes a cord with me. As a "Gen Xer Feminist" I feel like we were taught to "take it like a man" and so much of our American culture (not all but some) of how women are depicted in film (less so in television and books) is one-dimensional. I watched 2012 (the disaster movie with John Cusack) last night with my 10 year old daughter and my husband as escapist Saturday night family movie night and the first woman introduced on screen, an Indian woman and mom, the two male scientists comment about her saying she's "beautiful" and then joke that she "can't cook." That's it. There are no strong women in the film. I paused the movie and my husband knew exactly what I was going to say and was onboard with both of us explaining to our daughter that this is wrong and there is more to women. I would never have done this in the past, probably, but it's on my mind now. When I pitched and took "generals" as a screenwriter, I always talked about being a mom. It was relevant to the script I co-wrote The Baby Whisperer but sometimes it didn't play well but I didn't care. It is who I am. That is why I love this part of the speech and it is poignant for the holiday season:

"It is sad to see how soon friendless children are left to bear their own burdens[ix] before they can analyze their feelings; before they can even tell their joys and sorrows, they are thrown on their own resources. The great lesson that nature seems to teach us at all ages is self-dependence, self-protection, self-support. What a touching instance of a child’s solitude; of that hunger of the heart for love and recognition, in the case of the little girl who helped to dress a Christmas tree for the children of the family in which she served. On finding there was no present for herself she slipped away in the darkness and spent the night in an open field sitting on a stone, and when found in the morning was weeping as if her heart would break. No mortal will ever know the thoughts that passed through the mind of that friendless child in the long hours of that cold night, with only the silent stars to keep her company. The mention of her case in the daily papers moved many generous hearts to send her presents, but in the hours of her keenest suffering she was thrown wholly on herself for consolation."

She's talking about self-care here. Something women must learn to do in order to survive and thrive in life. The speech uniquely covers phases of a woman's life, teen years.

Here she elevates and "gets" what is so challenging about motherhood and something many men (not all, of course) don't "get": 

"The young wife and mother, at the head of some establishment with a kind husband to shield her from the adverse winds of life, with wealth, fortune and position, has a certain harbor of safety, secure against the ordinary ills of life. But to manage a household, have a desirable influence in society, keep her friends and the affections of her husband, train her children and servants well, she must have rare common sense, wisdom, diplomacy, and a knowledge of human nature. T o do all this she needs the cardinal virtues and the strong points of character that the most successful statesman possesses."

On importance of higher education:

"The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for the full development of her faculties, forces of mind and body;[vi] for giving her the most enlarged freedom of thought and action; a complete emancipation from all forms of bondage, of custom, dependence, superstition; from all the crippling influences of fear, is the solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life. The strongest reason why we ask for woman a voice in the government under which she lives; in the religion she is asked to believe; equality in social life, where she is a chief factor;[vii] a place in the trades and professions, where she may earn her bread, is because of her birthright to self-sovereignty; because, as an individual, she must rely on herself. No matter how much women prefer to lean, to be protected and supported, nor how much men desire to have them do so, they must make the voyage of life alone, and for safety in an emergency they must know something of the laws of navigation. To guide our own craft, we must be captain, pilot, engineer; with chart and compass to stand at the wheel; to watch the wind and waves and know when to take in the sail, and to read the signs in the firmament over all."

Full text: http://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/the-solitude-of-self-speech-by-ecs-to-the-house-judiciary-committee-speech-text/