Marietta Stow
Marietta L. B. Stow (1830 or 1837[1]–1902) was an American politician and women's rights activist. Throughout her career in law and politics, Stow advocated for women's suffrage, access to political office, and probate law reform.[1]
Personal life
Marietta Stow grew up in
Nine years before women were granted the right to vote in California, Marietta Stow died of breast cancer in 1902.[4]
Activism for women's rights
San Francisco Women's Suffrage Association
Stow replaced Elizabeth Schenck as president of the San Francisco Women's Suffrage Association after Schenck became sick in 1869. Aiming to widen the support of the movement, Stow called for a meeting in Sacramento to implement a suffrage bill, and she gave lectures in order to raise money for the cause. The organization decided to reject her idea and hold a conference in San Francisco instead, causing Stow to resign from the organization and leave the movement.[2]
Probate law reform
Eight years into their marriage, Stow's husband died on August 11, 1874, at the age of 48.
Stow wrote a book called Probate Confiscation about her belief that women's rights and roles in society involved more than just their positions as wives.
Career and political office
Stow was nominated by the Greenback Party in 1880 to be the San Francisco School Director. A year after accepting this nomination she formed the Women's Independent Political Party. This new party allowed for women to be further involved in politics and it was a way for them to gain confidence and experience. Stow believed it was vital that women have their own party, but she was still a supporter of the Greenback Party and its candidates.[3]
Stow ran for Governor of California in 1882, as the Women's Independent Political Party candidate. She was anti-Chinese, anti-monopoly, and anti-ring, but she was not against whiskey and tobacco. Stow campaigned these views via her own newspaper. The newspaper was also used to promote her ideas and thoughts on the philosophy of positivism, industrial education for women, and the new science of sociology while being actively against the masculinity of the government. Likewise, Stow promoted the usage of birth control, practicing eugenics, shorter work days, and preventing crime.[3]
Vice Presidential candidacy
She and
In 1892 she was a vice presidential candidate again, nominated by the "National Woman Suffragists' Nominating Convention" on September 21 at Willard's hotel in Boonville, New York presided over by Anna M. Parker, President of the convention. This time Victoria Woodhull was at the top of the ticket.[7]
Stow was the editor of Women's Herald of Industry and Social Science Cooperator.[3]
Notes
References
- ^ ).
- ^ a b c d e f g h Scheule, Donna C. (1995). "In Her Own Way: Marietta Stow's Crusade for Probate Law Reform Within the Nineteenth Century Women's Rights Movement". Yale Journal of Law and Feminism. 7: 297–306 – via Heinonline.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Marietta Stow". Her Hat Was In the Ring. herhatwasinthering.org. 2017.
- ^ a b c d "Early Statehood: 1850 – 1880s: Women's Rights | Picture This". picturethis.museumca.org. Retrieved 2017-04-06.
- ISBN 978-0-671-55041-7.
- ProQuest 221140723.
- ISSN 2157-3484. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
Further reading
- Reda Davis (1980). Women's Republic: The Life of Marietta Stow, Cooperator. Pt. Pinos Editions.
- Reda Davis (1968). California Women: A Guide to Their Politics, 1885-1911. San Francisco : California Scene.
- Donna Schuele (1995). "In Her Own Way: Marietta Stow's Crusade for Probate Law Reform Within the Nineteenth-Century Women's Rights Movement," Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 7 (2): 279-306 (partly online)