Juliet Severance argues for farm women's education, 1886

Farmers' Wives

Juliet H. Severance was physician, spiritualist, and outspoken advocate for abolition, temperance, labor, and women's rights. Like her better-known contemporary Victoria Woodhull, Severance argued that traditional marriage oppressed women, threatening their moral, legal, medical, and spiritual well-being. This did not stop her from marrying and raising a family of her own--she just happened to marry a like-minded man. In this piece, Severance argues on behalf of the farm wife who she believes is as important to the success of the farm as the farmer, and should, thus, have equal access to money and educational opportunities. She urges women to be educated as to the proper methods of rearing, clothing, and feeding children so as to create an "enlightened motherhood" for "salvation from the evils that fill our penitentiaries, our asylums, our dram-shops and brothels."

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