b. Ruth Hall was First Published Here

So far, we’ve focused on how transatlantic women are different. But, if you look at women from different social classes in America, you will see a large difference in how working class women were able to accomplish their goals.

Because the story focuses more on a women pushing to become financially independent for hereslf and her children, we were interested to see how this theme raised by Fanny Fern would translate into America Feminist ideals of the mid 1800s. Throughout the novel we see Hall fight to give her children a good and stable life. Hall is able to accomplish this when her book gets published. After meeting Mr. Walter, Ruth adopts the pseudonym “Floy” and is finally paid a fair wage. Despite having multiple male employers who took advantage of her financially, Ruth continued to write for Mr. Walter who encouraged her to publish her book. She writes, “Publication day came at last. There was the book. Ruth’s book! Oh, how few of its readers if it were fortunate enough to find readers, would know how much of her own heart’s history was there laid bare” (Page 175) Though Ruth didn’t have immediate confidence in her success, her first book length column becomes a bestseller, giving Hall the independence that she has strived for since the death of her husband. In America, the suffragette movement fought more for the rights of working class women, such as Ruth Hall. Fanny Fern is able to represent herself, an American working women, within her novel and captures the essence of the American Suffrage movement.  

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers: Speeches and Writings, -1902; Articles; 1901; 8 Dec., "Home Life a Century Ago," Philadelphia Sunday Press. 1901. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/mss412100048/>.