Suffrage for women in the United States was a movement born from the desire to have political agency to match women’s contribution to both the family home and community. In this episode, Leigh and Kim explore how community cookbooks helped to aid a cause spanning seven decades and bridge gaps in civil dialogue with good food.
Women’s Rights Enter the Public Consciousness
Suffrage for women entered public consciousness in the United States through a very intentional, concerted effort by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott to draw like-minded individuals together at the Seneca Falls Conventions of July 1848.
At this moment in U.S. history, womanhood was defined by unpaid labor in the home and on farms or by mill work and pice-labor. Mortality rates for adults and children alike were low; food standards were non-existent; and homes with kitchens did not have the conveniences of refrigeration or electricity. Food provisions were highly localized and lacked variety; canned and processed foods had not yet been invented.
Yet women persevered in their efforts to feed their families and nurture their communities, and in turn they just wanted the agency due to them as citizens via the right to vote.
How Community Cookbooks funded a Cause
Building on the themes involving the intersection of feminism and food studies, Leigh and Kim dive into the very real history of women’s suffrage in the United States and one of the most important tools available to make their case: food. We discuss how community cookbooks not only funded efforts for the Great Cause but also provided an open door for civil dialogue about suffrage and how it would not only benefit women, but the entire family.
We also discuss how cookbooks help to unveil the fabric of a community merely by allowing cookbook and recipe authors to express themselves creatively and to create a communal sense of belonging.
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Comfort Foods Transcript
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Sources We Found Helpful for this Episode
Books We Think You’ll Enjoy Reading
Recipes You Really Need to Try
Gifts for Suffragists
Woman's Suffrage Cookbook and Tea Towel Gift Set by Alison Gardiner Designs
19th Amendment Mug from the Unemployed Philosophers Guild Store
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Ep 37 From the Kitchen to the Voting Booth