August 14, 2018

On Aug. 13, 1818, 200 years ago yesterday, American abolitionist and suffragist Lucy Stone was born near West Brookfield, Massachusetts. Stone helped organize the women’s rights movement in the United States. She was one of the first American women to lecture on women’s rights and probably the nation’s first married woman to keep her maiden name. After a life spent fighting against discrimination and inequality, Stone died at age 75 on Oct. 18, 1893.

Lucy Stone, an American leader of the women’s rights movement, was born 200 years ago on Aug. 13, 1818. Credit: Library of Congress

Few women of Stone’s day went to college, but she began to teach school at the age of 16 to earn money so she could go. She entered Oberlin College in Ohio in 1843 and joined the abolitionist movement. In 1847, she became one of the first Massachusetts women to earn a college degree. After graduating from college, Stone lectured in the United States and Canada on abolitionism and, later, on women’s rights. She viewed slavery and widespread discrimination against women as linked evils of society. Stone helped organize the first national convention on equal rights for women, held in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1850.

In 1855, Stone married Henry Blackwell, a merchant and abolitionist. They omitted the word obey from their marriage vows and promised to treat each other equally. Stone continued to use her maiden name and even refused to open mail addressed to Mrs. Henry Blackwell. The phrase Lucy Stoners came to refer to women who kept their maiden names after marriage.

In 1869, Stone helped establish the American Woman Suffrage Association, which worked for women’s right to vote. Stone also founded the group’s newspaper, Woman’s Journal. Stone worked with and influenced such fellow women’s rights activists as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

In 1968, the U.S. Postal Service included Stone in its “Prominent Americans” stamp series. In 1999, a bronze bust of Stone was placed in the Massachusetts State House in Boston. In 2003, sculptor Meredith Bergmann included Stone in the Boston Women’s Memorial that also features former First Lady Abigail Adams and African American poet Phillis Wheatley.

Women in Saudi Arabia will be permitted to vote and run as candidates in municipal (city) elections beginning in 2015, announces King Abdullah. Saudi activists praised the decision as an important step in efforts to loosen restrictions on Saudi women. Since the 1960′s, educational and occupational opportunities for Saudi woman have increased. However, the Saudi government enforces a strict version of Sunni law known as Wahhābism. Under this version of Islamic law, women are not allowed to drive or travel without the permission of a male relative.

Elections for municipal councils, held for the first time in 2005, are the only public elections in Saudi Arabia. (Saudi Arabia is ruled by an absolute monarch—that is, the king holds nearly all power.) The second round of elections is scheduled for September 29. Voters choose about half of the members of the local councils. The government appoints the remaining members. The next municipal elections are scheduled for 2015.

King Abdullah also announces that women will have the right to serve on the Shura Council, an advisory board that the king can consult. All members of the board are appointed by the government.

Additional World Book articles:

• Human rights
• Shari`ah
• Woman’s suffrage