INDEPENDENT WOMEN

A Woman of Means: Jane Addams – This program covers the early years of Jane Addams, and her first ten years at Hull House. Jane was a young woman looking for direction in her life when she happened to visit a settlement in England and found the one the that she felt would make her a “useful woman".

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony are two of the most well-known names of the many women who struggled for over 50 years to secure the right to vote. These two women endured malicious rumors and gossip and were continually defeated when trying to get voting rights passed. The two women complimented each other in their strengths and weaknesses, but neither was able to see women get the right to vote in their lifetime. This one act play features two actresses depicting both the public and private moments in the lives of these pioneering women.

Sarah Josepha Hale was the Martha Stewart of her day. She didn’t have the luxury of television, but she did have a magazine called Godey’s Lady’s Book. During the nineteenth century the Lady’s Book was known as the “Victorian Bible of the Parlor.” Besides being editor of the magazine for 50 years she is also considered the mother of Thanksgiving. She campaigned for a day of thanksgiving in her magazine until President Lincoln made it official.

A Forgotten Woman: Frances Willard – In 1898, Frances was so well-known that
30, 000 people came to her funeral, but now few people know her name. A resident of Evanston, IL, she spent her early years as a teacher, eventually becoming president of Northwestern’s Women’s College. She was an wonderful speaker, and maintained her presidency of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union for twenty years.

Nellie Bly - If Nellie Bly wasn't born, there might not be any women investigative journalist or reporters. It was considered improper at the time for women journalists to use their real names, so Elizabeth Jane Cochran used a pseudonym: Nellie Bly. She decided to write an article on divorce based on interviews with women that she knew. In the piece, Bly used the material to argue for the reform of the marriage and divorce laws. Her first book was Around the World in 72 Days. She beat Phileas Fogg's record. In 1888 she spent ten days posing as a patient in the mental hospital on Blackwells Island, now Roosevelt Island, New York City, to gather information about the treatment of the inmates. She died in 1922.

Belle Boyd declared her allegiance to the Confederacy early in the Civil War even though she lived in a Union stronghold. By delivering information across enemy lines she was instrumental in changing the outcome of some early Civil War battles. She was captured, spent time in jail (more than once) and went on to write her memoirs. Later in life, she became an actress and traveled in England and the United States. She died on a speaking tour of the Midwest and she is buried in Wisconsin.