Cooper (1813-1894) was no ordinary woman. She was educated in
Europe and extremely well read; she was the daughter and literary
assistant of James Fenimore Cooper, America's first internationally
recognized novelist; and she was a naturalist and essayist of great
talent whose "nature diary" of her home village at Cooperstown,
published as "Rural Hours" in 1850, has become a classic of early
American environmental literature.

{Yet Susan Fenimore Cooper argued eloquently, bringing to her task
not only her deep religious feelings but also her very considerable
knowledge of world history and of American society, that women
should not be given the vote! Hers was not a simple defense of male
dominion; her case is combined with equally eloquent arguments in
favor of higher education for women, and for equal wages for equal
work. "Female Suffrage," is thus of considerable biographic
importance, throwing important light on her views of God, of society,
and of American culture.

{At the same time, "Female Suffrage" demonstrates that no social
argument--however popular or politically correct today--can be
considered as self-evident. Those who favor full legal and social
equality of the sexes at the ballot box and elsewhere (as I believe I
do), should be prepared to examine and answer Susan Fenimore
Cooper's arguments to the contrary. Many of those arguments are
still heard daily in the press and on TV talk shows--not indeed to end
women's right to vote, but as arguments against further steps
towards gender equality. Unlike many modern commentators, Susan
Fenimore Cooper examines these arguments in detail, both as to
their roots and their possible effects, rather than expressing them as
simplistic sound-bites. She asks her readers to examine whether