‘To Educate Women into Rebellion’: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Creation of a Transatlantic Network of Radical Suffragists
Author(s)
Holton, Sandra Stanley
Abstract
The article explores the consequences of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s visits to Britain and continental Europe in the mid-nineteenth century. Examining this evidence brings into focus an alternative suffrage leadership among radical-liberal circles in Britain in the latter part of that century, and so broadens the picture of the varieties within suffragism, as well as some of the intellectual and social roots of those varieties, often neglected by mainstream analysis, which see these movements as essentially moderate. In particular, it points to a continuing transatlantic legacy from the abolition movement in terms of the conception of the reformer’s role. In emphasizing the need to “educate women into rebellion”, Stanton sought to foster a confrontational approach to the emancipation of her sex.
