"To Believe in Women"

[Wendy Phillips]

"To Believe in Women"
by Lillian Faderman
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/039585010X/wendysmall
Taking up where her 1981 classic, "Surpassing the Love of
Men," left off, Lillian Faderman reveals that many of the
early leaders who fought for women's suffrage, higher
education for women, and women's entrance into "male"
professions would in today's parlance be called lesbians:
"women who lived in committed relationships with other
women." Unencumbered by the duties of marriage and
motherhood, they were more likely to have the time, energy,
and freedom to work for women's rights. In fact, they were
more or less obliged to try to better women's lives,
Faderman argues, for there was no man to represent them at
the polls or support them financially. (Although Elizabeth
Cady Stanton's husband and seven children failed to distract
her from the cause, her friend Susan B. Anthony used to help
her with the children and housework before they settled down
for political strategy meetings.) During the Great
Depression, when women's social and economic gains began to
dwindle, it was these "single" women who kept professions
open while married women were being fired in favor of
men. Faderman gracefully surveys a century of advancement
and retreat, shedding light on America's debt to
women-loving women.