Elizabeth Cady Stanton: “Solitude of Self”

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

Many consider her speech “Solitude of Self” to be Stanton's best work, as did Stanton herself. It was delivered three times in Washington, D.C. First, it was sent in written form, on January 18, 1892, to the congressional Committee of the Judiciary. That afternoon she delivered the speech at the National American Woman Suffrage Association convention, as retiring president of the organization. On January 20 she personally gave the speech to the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage. The speech proclaims the principles and values underlying the struggle for woman's rights.

She states the main theme of the speech as “the individuality of each human soul.” Her first point is that a woman has the right to secure her “own safety and happiness,” a phrase echoing the Declaration of Independence. Her allusion to Robinson Crusoe “with her woman Friday” reflects her concern about the individual's essential isolation and the need for self-dependence. Her second point is her usual argument that if a woman is considered a citizen, she must have the same fundamental rights as other citizens. A third point characterizes woman as “an equal factor in civilization”; consequently, her “rights and duties” are the same as a man's. Her fourth point singles out how the specific concerns of woman “as mother, wife, sister, daughter… may involve some special duties and training.”

Stanton stresses the importance of higher education in providing woman not only “enlarged freedom of thought and action” but also emancipation from any type of dependency. She again emphasizes the need for woman to have a voice in government and other aspects of her life because she, finally, must depend on herself. Even those women who might “prefer to lean, to be protected and supported” must ultimately “make the voyage of life alone.” Extending this metaphor, Stanton declares that a woman, as well as a man, must know “something of the laws of navigation” and be “captain, pilot, engineer,” able “to stand at the wheel … and know when to take in the sail.” In addition to each individual's essential aloneness, there is an “infinite diversity in human character.” With this in mind, Stanton points out the “loss to the nation when any large class of the people is uneducated and unrepresented in the government”—such as with women.

Part of “the complete development of every individual” is education, and “to throw obstacles in the way of a complete education is like putting out the eyes.” The woman “with a kind husband to shield her from the adverse winds of life, with wealth, fortune and position,” is generally safe. But an “uneducated woman, trained to dependence,” has no resources. Although society says a woman does not need education, Stanton disagrees. She asks what an older woman, whose children are grown, can do. Without “companionship in books” or any reason for interest in government reforms, such women may “soon pass into their dotage.” She exhorts the importance of women becoming involved throughout their lives in education, in finance, in community welfare.

Rather than being confined to any gendered sphere, women must be “thoroughly educated for all the positions in life they may be called to fill” and “trained to self-protection by a healthy development of the muscular system and skill in the use of weapons of defense.” Some of Stanton's lyceum lectures, particularly “Our Girls,” expand upon the necessity for healthy lifestyles, both physical and mental, for young women. She mentions the importance of the knowledge of business for women, not an aspect of the typical woman's sphere. Stanton refutes the common idea that only the domestic arts are suitable studies for women, stating that many men cook, bake, and launder, but they do not have to study such subjects at Harvard or Yale.

Finally, Stanton stresses how “courage, judgment, and the exercise of every faculty of mind and body” should be “strengthened and developed by use” in men and women alike. If confined within a gendered sphere, women cannot fully develop and will not be strengthened by activity. Circling back to the beginning of the speech, Stanton reminds her audience that when each person meets the Angel of Death, each is alone. She closes the speech with a question: “Who, I ask you, can take, dare take, on himself the rights, the duties, the responsibilities of another human soul?” In view of Stanton's preceding logical arguments and examples, it is clear that no human should serve as master to another. She demands equal rights for all individuals, proclaiming that each person must have the tools of survival for his or her voyage through life.