use thisANNETTE FINNIGAN, Chairwoman of the Equal Suffrage League of Houston
EMMALINE, KATHERINE, JANE, BELLE, and other members of the Equal Suffrage League of Houston
SCENE 1
1 [Early afternoon in spring 1903. A dozen women are seated in a well-furnished living room. They have just finished tea and cookies.]
2 ANNETTE FINNIGAN: [Stands.] Ladies, the meeting of the Equal Suffrage League of Houston will now come to order. We will first hear a report of the suggestions for furthering our cause. Emmaline?
3 EMMALINE: [Stands.] Thank you, Madame Chairwoman. You will all remember that last month we took pamphlets to our mayor’s office. Nothing has come of that attempt. I believe it is time we stepped up and organized a protest.
4 KATHERINE: We need something stronger than a protest. We could tie ourselves to the fence outside the governor’s mansion.
5 [Several women look at one another, clearly alarmed.]
6 JANE: Katherine, that’s a long way to travel.
7 KATHERINE: Yes, I know. It’s more than 150 miles, so it will show that we are serious about our need to vote.
8 BELLE: Who will look after our children and homes while we are gone?
9 KATHERINE: We can surely organize care for one another.
10 ANNETTE FINNIGAN: Before we become too attached to one idea—are there other suggestions?
11 EMMALINE: We need to write letters to the editors of the Houston newspapers. We could send copies to Austin as well.
12 [General murmurs of agreement from the other women.]
13 BELLE: Could we also picket the mayor’s office on the day the editorials are printed?
14 JANE: I like that idea. No offense, Katherine, but I cannot imagine going to Austin. I could carry a sign in front of the mayor’s office, though.
15 KATHERINE: Well, I don’t see how that’s going to get all the women in Texas the vote.
16 JANE: Perhaps we could start branch organizations in other cities. We could begin with letters to key women in each city, inviting them to be part of this effort.
17 ANNETTE FINNIGAN: That is a sound idea, Jane. Belle, could you design some signs for us to carry in protest?
18 BELLE: Certainly!
19 KATHERINE: I think we aren’t seeing the big picture. We aren’t thinking of all the women. Good afternoon.
20 [She leaves. The others look at one another in dismay.]
SCENE 2
21 [The following week, eight women from the previous act are walking back and forth in front of the mayor’s office, carrying signs of protest.]
22 BELLE: [To Emmaline as they walk.] Katherine didn’t come. [nervously] Do you think . . . do you think she went to Austin alone? I—I—[blurting it out now] I’m so worried she’s angry that I didn’t support her ideas.
23 EMMALINE: [Reassuringly.] Yes, I noticed she was missing. I would hate to lose her from the league. She does have good ideas, even if they are too wild for me sometimes. I don’t think she’ll carry a grudge. You know how quickly she got over being angry with Annette last year. She was the first to support her as president of the League.
24 BELLE: We both want votes for women. We just go about achieving our goal differently. I don’t want to lose her friendship.
25 KATHERINE: [Entering excitedly.] Here I am! Sorry to be late. Is there an extra sign?
26 EMMALINE: [Hands her a sign.] Where have you been?
27 KATHERINE: I met the train at the station. Our state senator was on it, coming home for the weekend. I talked to him about a woman’s right to vote while he waited for the porter to get his luggage. He seemed interested in our cause.
28 BELLE: [Gives Katherine a quick hug.] How exciting! I’m so proud of you, Katherine! That was a brave thing to do.
29 KATHERINE: Well, we couldn’t go to Austin, but Austin came to us!
30 [The women laugh and continue marching. The lights fade, leaving just one spotlight on Katherine, upstage left.]
31 KATHERINE: And so ends our little local protest. How brave they are, my friends in the league: brave, smart, funny, and all very dear to me. I love them all, but alas, I am not sure they see the big picture. If we want to change things nationally, we need to act on a large scale. [She begins pacing the stage.] Sadly, that’s exactly the reason there is no way to act alone. If they choose to protest in Houston, not Austin, Houston it is! My conversation with our senator was wonderful. But I doubt women will have the right to vote any time soon. It’s likelier that people will fly to the moon or that a woman will serve as a soldier!
“Votes for Women!” written for educational purposes.
Source 2: from Woman’s Sphere
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe, while an accomplished writer by the time this literary essay was published in the book The Chimney Corner, wrote “Woman’s Sphere” from the voice of a man named Christopher Crowfield. In this abridged chapter, Mr. Crowfield is discussing women’s rights with his wife and their family friend, Bob Stephens. The references to “the war” are to the long-lasting effects of the Civil War.
32 “What do you think of this Woman’s Rights question?” said Bob Stephens. “From some of your remarks, I apprehend that you think there is something in it. I may be wrong, but I must confess that I have looked with disgust on the whole movement. No man reverences women as I do; but I reverence them—as women.”
33 “As to the ‘Woman’s Rights movement,’” said I, “it is not peculiar to America, it is part of a great wave in the incoming tide of modern civilization; the swell is felt no less in Europe, but it combs over and breaks on our American shore, because our great wide beach affords the best play for its waters; and as the ocean waves bring with them kelp, sea-weed, mud, sand, gravel, and even putrefying1 debris, which lie unsightly on the shore, and yet, on the whole, are healthful and refreshing,—so the Woman’s Rights movement, with its conventions, its speech-makings, its crudities, and eccentricities, is nevertheless a part of a healthful and necessary movement of the human race towards progress.
34 This question of Woman and her Sphere is now, perhaps, the greatest of the age. We have put Slavery under foot, and with the downfall of Slavery the only obstacle to the success of our great democratic experiment is overthrown, and there seems no limit to the splendid possibilities which it may open before the human race.”
35 “Then,” said my wife, “you believe that women ought to vote?”
36 “If the principle on which we founded our government is true, that taxation must not exist without representation, and if women hold property and are taxed, it follows that women should be represented in the State by their votes, or there is an illogical working of our government.”
37 “But, after all,” said Bob, “what do you gain? What will a woman’s vote be but a duplicate of that of her husband or father, or whatever man happens to be her adviser?”
38 “There are certain neglected truths, which have been held up by these reformers, that are gradually being accepted and infused into the life of modern society; and their recognition will help to solidify and purify democratic institutions. They are,—
“1. The right of every woman to hold independent property.
“2. The right of every woman to receive equal pay with man for work which she does equally well.
“3. The right of any woman to do any work for which, by her natural organization and talent, she is peculiarly adapted.”
39 “Under the first head, our energetic sisters have already, by the help of their gallant male adjutants, reformed the laws of several of our States, so that a married woman is no longer left the unprotected legal slave of any unprincipled . . . spendthrift who may be her husband,— . . . the wife, if she have the ability, can conduct business, make contracts, earn and retain money for the good of the household; and I am sure no one can say that immense injustice and cruelty are not thereby prevented.
40 “It is quite easy for women who have the good fortune to have just and magnanimous husbands to say that they feel no interest in such reforms, and that they would willingly trust their property to the man to whom they give themselves; but they should remember that laws are not made for the restraint of the generous and just, but of the dishonest and base. The law which enables a married woman to hold her own property does not forbid her to give it to the man of her heart, if she so pleases; and it does protect many women who otherwise would be reduced to the extremest misery.”
41 “Well,” said Bob, “the most interesting question still remains: What are to be the employments of woman? What ways are there for her to use her talents, to earn her livelihood and support those who are dear to her. . . . This is becoming more than ever one of the pressing questions of our age. The war has deprived so many thousands of women of their natural protectors, that everything must be thought of that may possibly open a way for their self-support.”
42 “Well, let us look over the field,” said my wife. “What is there for woman?”
43 “In the first place,” said I, “come the professions requiring natural genius,—authorship, painting, sculpture, with the subordinate arts of photographing, coloring, and finishing; but when all is told, these furnish employment to a very limited number. . . . Then there is teaching, which is profitable in its higher branches, and perhaps the very pleasantest of all the callings open to woman; but teaching is at present an overcrowded profession. . . . Architecture and landscape-gardening are arts every way suited to the genius of woman, and there are enough who have the requisite mechanical skill and mathematical education. . . . When women plan dwelling-houses, the vast body of tenements to be let in our cities will wear a more domestic and comfortable air, and will be built more with reference to the real wants of their inmates.”
1. putrefying: rotting or decaying and having a stinking odor
Woman’s Sphere by Harriet Beecher Stowe. In the public domain.
Source 3: The Socialist and the Suffragist
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)
A well-known writer, speaker, reformer, and feminist, Charlotte Perkins advocated for women’s equality in their daily lives, whether at home or in the outside world. This poem, published in 1911, reflects her thinking on voting rights for women and social reforms that would benefit all of society.
1
5 Said the Socialist to the Suffragist:
“My cause is greater than yours!
You only work for a Special Class,
We work for the gain of the General Mass,
Which every good ensures!”
10 Said the Suffragist to the Socialist:
“You underrate my Cause!
While women remain a Subject Class,
You never can move the General Mass,
With your Economic Laws!”
15 Said the Socialist to the Suffragist:
“You misinterpret facts!
There is no room for doubt or schism
In Economic Determinism–
It governs all our acts!”
20 Said the Suffragist to the Socialist:
“You men will always find
That this old world will never move
More swiftly in its ancient groove
While women stay behind!”
25 “A lifted world lifts women up,”
The Socialist explained.
“You cannot lift the world at all
While half of it is kept so small,”
The Suffragist maintained.
30 The world awoke, and tartly spoke:
“Your work is all the same:
Work together or work apart,
Work, each of you, with all your heart–
Just get into the game!”
“The Socialist and the Suffragist” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In the public domain.
Category: Early Childhood Education Early Intervention
Please collect some data and make a simple analysis, then write a summary (1-2 pages) based on the literature review and/or other public data resources.
The data includes CO2 emissions from the power systems, energy (electricity) load/demand, and temperature increase (relative to the pre-industrial reference period) in Kenya, Madagascar, and Sierra Leone in the years 2020, 2030, and 2050 respectively. For the data in the years 2030 and 2050, it could apply different scenarios (national target, SSP path…etc.). Tables and graphs could be used to present and analyze the data in the summary. Graphs should be done on Python and the code file should be sent to me.