150 Years Ago
100 Years Ago
The debate over the purpose of women’s education continued.
Packer graduates’ attitudes toward the suffrage movement were influenced by the intersecting forces of gender and socio-economic status.
“Ability in Household Manners”
Too many girls unfortunately consider their education completed when a diploma is received... [T]hey devote their whole time to accomplishments and the pursuit of pleasure. But, as our parents are so fond of telling us, when our school life is finished, our real life is just begun; and then, the foundation of our education being laid, comes the time to fit ourselves for what is considered a woman’s true sphere. A thorough knowledge of housekeeping includes the general care of a house, as regards ventilation, skill in cookery, control of servants, and, if economy be necessary, ability to make two ends meet…. Ill-temper generally—I will not say always—follows on the part of the man, who somehow forgets that before marriage, when ability in household matters was mildly suggested as one of the requisites of a good wife, he indignantly scouted the idea of “marrying a cook.” “Just like a man!” I fancy I hear some young girl exclaim. Yes, exactly, my friend; for man is, at best, but an inconsistent animal. But still he must be pleased, if there is to be any peace or comfort for the “weaker” (?) [sic] sex. — “B.M.C.” in “Housekeeping,” in The Packer Quarterly, 1873
Suffrage and “Real Womanliness”
Whether in the past you worked for suffrage or against it…, it is your new privilege, and as such cannot be abused. For what abuse of a gift is there greater than its neglect? The sword left in its scabbard rusts and stains the hands that thereafter touch it. What of the flame-bright sword now bound at your side? Will you leave it in this shameful scabbard of those who will corrupt it to evil ends, or will you keep it shining by your own tireless battle for the right? For it is you, most womanly of women, in your pleasant homes, atmosphere with faith and purity and honor, who will best wield this sword. It is you who will and must fight for the weak and the sinful and lead, or it may be, drive them toward hope and happiness. Many of you consider that the sum of woman plus suffrage equals unwomanliness. It now rests with you to prove this true, for men have always declared that women never stand by each other in crises. So it is for you to put aside your objections and your distaste and join the rest of us who have always felt it our duty to uphold suffrage.
Lucy Burns, Class of 1899, was a prominent figure in the American movement for women’s suffrage, using her fearlessness and persistence to sway minds. She grew up in a large Irish family in Brooklyn, and began her education at Packer. A gifted student, she went on to Columbia, Vassar, Yale, and Oxford, where she met British suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst. Inspired by Pankhurst’s enthusiasm and militant methods, Burns left school and fought for women’s rights in Britain from 1910 to 1912. While being arrested for demonstrating, she encountered fellow American Alice Paul. Burns and Paul became lifelong friends and colleagues in the fight for women’s suffrage. Upon returning to the US, they joined the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA), organizing its more radical protests, including a 5,000-woman march in Washington, DC, on the eve of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. In 1916, the duo established the National Women’s Party, a political party committed to direct action to achieve women’s suffrage. Burns organized daily picketing of the White House, angering President Wilson. Upon her third arrest in 1917, she was convicted and given the maximum sentence. While she was imprisoned in the Occuquan Workhouse [left], guards brutally beat and injured Burns and dozens of other suffragists. Burns responded by leading a hunger strike. Wanting to diffuse her power, authorities transferred her to a different prison and force fed her painfully through a tube. The brutality of the “Night of Terror” at Occuquan began to turn public opinion in the suffragists’ favor. After the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, Burns returned to Brooklyn and spent her remaining days out of the public eye until her death in 1966.
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