Marie Jenney Howe (1870–1934) was a feminist organizer and writer born in Syracuse, New York. She was deeply involved with the movement for

Women's suffrage in the United States In the 1700's to early 1800's New Jersey did allow Women the right to vote before the passing of the 19th Amendment, but in 1807 the state restricted the right to vote to "...tax-paying, white male citizens..." Women's legal right to vote w ...

Career

Howe worked as a Unitarian minister and

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

, graduating in 1897 from the Unitarian Theological Seminary in Meadville, Pennsylvania. She worked as assistant minister to Mary Augusta Safford in Sioux City and Des Moines, Iowa. She was active in the Consumers' League of Cleveland, and later in New York, was a leader in the

National American Woman Suffrage Association The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the Nationa ...

, later leaving it for

Alice Paul Alice Stokes Paul (January 11, 1885 – July 9, 1977) was an American Quaker, suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist, and one of the main leaders and strategists of the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ...

Congressional Union The Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage was an American organization formed in 1913 led by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns to campaign for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women's suffrage. It was inspired by the United Kingdom's suffraget ...

, which became the

National Women's Party The National Woman's Party (NWP) was an American women's political organization formed in 1916 to fight for women's suffrage. After achieving this goal with the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the NW ...

. In 1926 she moved to Paris to do research into the life of

George Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...

, publishing a critically acclaimed biography of George Sand, ''George Sand: The Search for Love'' in 1927. With help from Sand's granddaughter Aurore, she edited and translated a collection of Sand's journals. She collaborated with many other activists and writers on essays, magazine articles, speeches, and propaganda plays, including at least two plays written with

Rose Emmet Young Rose Emmet Young (1869–1941; also known as Rose Young, Rose Emmet, or R.E. Young) was an American fiction and editorial writer, and an advocate for the suffrage movement. Background and early work Rose Emmet Young was born in Lexington, Mis ...

, her close companion for many years.

Feminism and Heterodoxy

In 1899, after reading ''

Women and Economics ''Women and Economics – A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution'' is a book written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and published in 1898. It is considered by many to be her single greatest work, and ...

'', Jenney described herself as a "disciple" of

Charlotte Perkins Gilman Charlotte Perkins Gilman (; née Perkins; July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935), also known by her first married name Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was an American humanist, novelist, writer, lecturer, advocate for social reform, and eugenicist. She ...

. In 1912 Marie Jenney Howe founded the feminist literary and debating society,

Heterodoxy In religion, heterodoxy (from Ancient Greek: , "other, another, different" + , "popular belief") means "any opinions or doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position". Under this definition, heterodoxy is similar to unorthodoxy, w ...

, in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, New York City. During the United States' participation in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Heterodoxy was watched and had to move venues for every meeting. Marie Jenney Howe was taken into custody by the

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...

in 1919 to be questioned about her radical political activities. Heterodoxy's group of feminist public intellectuals and radicals, including Charlotte Perkins Gilman,

Fannie Hurst Fannie Hurst (October 18, 1889 – February 23, 1968) was an American novelist and short-story writer whose works were highly popular during the post-World War I era. Her work combined sentimental, romantic themes with social issues of the d ...

Elisabeth Irwin Elisabeth Antoinette Irwin (29 August 1880, Brooklyn, New York–16 October 1942, Manhattan, age 62) was the founder of the Little Red School House. She was an educator, psychologist, reformer, and declared lesbian, living with her life partner ...

, and many others, continued until the mid-1940s.

Personal life

Marie Jenney married political reformer

Frederic C. Howe Frederic Clemson Howe (November 21, 1867 – August 3, 1940) was a member of the Ohio Senate, a Georgist (advocate of a single tax), Commissioner of Immigration of the Port of New York, and published author. He was also founder and president of ...

in 1904. They moved to New York City in 1910. Adickes, Sandra. ''To Be Young Was Very Heaven: Women in New York Before the First World War''. Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.

Published works

* ''An Anti-Suffrage Monologue'' published by the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), 1912. A satirical lecture. (A contemporary performance of this, retitled ''Someone Must Wash the Dishes,'' was created in 1995. Directed by Warren Kliewer for The East Lynne Company, it continues to be performed by Michele LaRue.) * ''George Sand: The Search For Love''. Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishers, 1927. * ''George Sand's Intimate Journal''. Preface by Aurore Sand. New York: John Day, Inc., 1929. reprinted New York: Haskell House Pubs., 1975. * "The Cigar Smoker." Written with Rose Young. Performed 1936. * In 1918 she wrote "Telling the Truth at the White House", a play about the suffrage march in Washington DC, with

Paula O. Jakobi Paula O. Jakobi (1870 – July 12, 1960) was an American suffragist and playwright. Career and activism Jakobi was a suffrage leader in New York City, affiliated with the National Woman's Party. She organized an event at Cooper Union in 1914, ...

. * ''Impossible George'', a three-act play published in 1935.

External links

Suffrage On Stage: Marie Jenney Howe Parodies the Opposition
Contains full text of ''An Anti-Suffrage Monologue''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howe, Marie Jenney American women dramatists and playwrights American feminist writers American suffragists 1870 births 1950 deaths 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American women writers Women satirists American women essayists American satirists American Unitarian clergy 20th-century American biographers American women biographers 20th-century American essayists