Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B.

Anthony:
A Friendship that Changed the World

Reading Guide

Questions:

1. Of the many incidents in Elizabeth’s and Susan’s friendship, which

were the most meaningful to you? In what way (s), was their

friendship similar or dissimilar to your own friendships?

2. What do you see as Elizabeth’s and Susan’s strengths and how did

their strengths contribute to the chemistry of their relationship?

3. In a historic time when women’s options and opportunities were

constrained, Elizabeth, as a wife and mother, gained respectability,

while Susan, as an unmarried woman, retained certain economic and

legal rights, including the right to sign contracts to rent halls for

conventions. Imagining yourself as living during their time, which

role appeals to you? Why? How might your choice affect your

involvement in the fight for woman’s rights?

4. Reflect on what Elizabeth and Susan and Lucretia Mott had to say

about a loving relationship: Elizabeth-- there is “real bliss, if only the

two are perfect equals, two loving people, neither assuming to control
 the other.” Susan—It is not the outside things . . . but the inner, the

spirit of love.” Lucretia—their independence “is equal, their

dependence mutual, and their obligations reciprocal” What would you

say about a loving relationship?

5. In assessing Susan’s effect on her, Elizabeth once wrote: “I do believe

that I have developed into much more of a woman under her

jurisdiction.” As for assessing Elizabeth’s effect, Susan wrote, “I

never could have done my work if I had not had this woman at my

right hand.” How would you assess someone (female or male) who

you are close to?

6. In the mid-1850’s, Susan had an epiphany that “Woman must have a

purse of her own.” In the mid-1900’s, Virginia Woolf wrote, “A

woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write

fiction.” What advice would you give women today? How has your

advice played out in your own life?

7. Talk about whether or not you were partial to Susan or Elizabeth or

equally to both and did your feelings change as you read the book?

Did you identify characteristics of either one or both of them in

yourself or in someone you know well.

8. Discuss other characters who caught your attention and why, e.g.,

Lucretia Mott, Angelina and Sarah Grimke, Victoria Woodhull, Gerrit

Smith, Horace Greeley, George Train, etc.

9. What was your reaction as you read about the resistance to woman’s

rights, in particular suffrage—the hostile press, defeat after defeat of

woman suffrage referenda, the intransigence of congressional

representatives, and the fact that Elizabeth and Susan died before

women won the right to vote? Why do you think that women like

Elizabeth, Susan, Lucretia Mott, and Lucy Stone and the story of the

fight for woman suffrage are not well known today? Do you think

that should change; if so, how would you start?

10. As you read the many quotations from Elizabeth and Susan

throughout the book,

which one(s) particularly resonated with you? Which one(s) do you

think best exemplifies your sense of Elizabeth herself, Susan herself,

and them as friends? Which quote (s) exemplifies you as you see

yourself or would like to see yourself?