
Never Heard of Susan B. Anthony (1880)
This strongly worded letter to the Pittsburgh Leader on March 21, 1880 was reproduced in the April 1880 issue of the National Citizen and Ballot Box suffrage newspaper published by Matilda Joslyn Gage.
Editor Leader:
However startling, incredible and surprising it may appear, it is yet an actual fact that there is a so-called intelligent woman in this town who has never heard of Susan B. Anthony. A woman, too, who lives in luxury, wears satin de Lyon and sealskin and diamonds, a woman who can command leisure enough to read all the papers and no end of books, and yet she said she had never heard of Susan B., and confessed it, too, with all the nonchalance and coolness in the world. Good heavens I Maria, said her friend, do you never read the papers? Oh, yes, she answered, but I never read anything but the marriages and deaths and the “wants.” It is a great waste of time, you know, to read newspapers. Think of it! A woman so given over to tucking, ruffling, embroidering, tatting, pillow-shamming and crewel work, that she cannot read the papers. Think of a woman so given over to dressing, visiting, shopping, tea-partying and “sich,” that she knows nothing of the every day history of the world she lives in, except as regards the marriages, deaths and “wants” of our own dirty little corner of the earth. Think of a woman content to live along without knowledge, without reading, without a desire to know. Think of a woman who in these days of woman’s rights, has never heard of Susan B. Anthony. Surely she must be one of those dear, delightful ignoramuses—the angelical ideal of many men—who is shut up in that awfully hallowed spot which they calla “woman’s sphere,” and without a thought beyond. What a sweet, delightful, interesting, entertaining companion such a woman must be.