Anna Howard Shaw (February 14, 1847 – July 2, 1919) was a leader of the
women's suffrage movement in the United States. She was also a physician and one of the first ordained female
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
ministers in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
.
Early life
![Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Howard Shaw in 1917](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Carrie_Chapman_Catt_and_Anna_Howard_Shaw_in_1917.jpg)
Shaw was born in
Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1847. When she was four, she and her family emigrated to the United States and settled in
Lawrence, Massachusetts. When Shaw was twelve years old, her father took "up claim of three hundred and sixty acres of land in the wilderness" of northern Michigan "and sent
ermother and five young children to live there alone."
[Shaw, Anna Howard; Jordan, Elizabeth Garver and Catt, Carrie Chapman (1915]
''The Story of a Pioneer''
New York and London: Harper & Brothers."
Her mother had envisioned their Michigan home to be “an English farm” with “deep meadows, sunny skies and daisies," but was devastated upon their arrival to discover that it was actually a "forlorn and desolate" log cabin "in what was then a wilderness, 40 miles from a post office and 100 miles from a railroad."
[ Here the family faced the dangers of living on the frontier. Shaw became very active during this period, helping her siblings refurbish their home and supporting her mother in her time of shock and despair. Shaw took on several physical tasks such as "digging of a well, chopp ngwood for the big fireplace, ndfell ngtrees."]
Seeing her mother's emotional suffering, Shaw blamed her irresponsible father for "ha inggven
Ven may refer to:
Places
* Ven, Heeze-Leende, a hamlet in the Netherlands
* Ven (Sweden), an island
* Ven, Tajikistan, a town
* VEN or Venezuela
Other uses
* von Economo neurons, also called ''spindle neurons''
* '' Vên'', an EP by Eluveiti ...
no thought to the manner in which heir family wasto make the struggle and survive the hardships before hem
A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the g ...
" While her invalid mother was overburdened with household chores", her father in Lawrence could freely dedicate "much time to the Abolition cause and big public movements of his day."
The family's misfortunes grew worse over the years. During the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, her sister Eleanor died giving birth, and her brother Tom was wounded. When Shaw was fifteen, she became a school teacher and, after her older brothers and father joined the war effort, she used her earnings to help support her family. Yet with "every month of effort, the gulf between income and expenses grew wider."
Call to preach
Shaw felt a call to preach from an early age. As a child, she would spend time in the woods near her house, and stand on tree stumps to preach to the forest. She was determined to go to college and follow the path that she felt was God's will
"God's Will" is a song written by Barry Dean and Tom Douglas and recorded by American country music artist Martina McBride. It was released in December 2004 as the fourth and final single from McBride's 2003 album '' Martina''.
Music video
Th ...
for her life. Despite her family's disapproval, as Shaw matured, her drive to attend college became firmer. After the Civil War, she abandoned her teaching job and moved in with her married sister Mary in Big Rapids, Michigan
Big Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 10,601 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Mecosta County. The city is located within Big Rapids Township, but it is politically independent. Big Rapids is home ...
. While she recalls that she would have preferred more physical and active labor, such as digging ditches or shoveling coal, she was forced to pick up the "dreaded needle," and become a seamstress
A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician.
Not ...
, one of the more acceptable occupations available for women at the time.
A pivotal moment in Shaw's life came when she met Reverend Marianna Thompson, a Universalist minister who came to preach in Grand Rapids. Shaw went to the service, eager to see a woman in the pulpit. After the service, Shaw confided in Thompson her own desire to pursue the ministry as a vocation, and Thompson strongly encouraged her to obtain an education without delay.
Thanks to Thompson's help, Shaw entered Big Rapids High School, where the preceptress, Lucy Foot, recognized Shaw's talents and drive. At the age of twenty-four, Shaw was invited by Dr. H. C. Peck, a man looking to ordain a woman into ministry in the Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...
, to give her first sermon. Shaw hesitated at first because her only previous experience had been "as a little girl preaching alone in the forest...to a congregation of listening trees." With encouragement from Lucy Foot, Dr. Peck, and her close friend, Clara Osborn, Shaw agreed and gave her first sermon in Ashton, Michigan.
Despite the success of her first sermon, her newfound passion to preach received disapproval from her classmates, friends, and family, who agreed to pay for her college education only if she abandoned preaching. Despite such continual opposition and isolation from so many, Anna chose to keep on preaching. She was "deeply moved" by Mary A. Livermore, a prominent lecturer who came to Big Rapids. Ms. Livermore gave her the following advice: “if you want to preach, go on and preach…No matter what people say, don’t let them stop you!”
In 1873, the Methodist Church “voted unanimously to grant her a local preacher’s license.”
Struggles during college years
In 1873, Shaw entered Albion College
Albion College is a private liberal arts college in Albion, Michigan. The college was founded in 1835 and its undergraduate population was approximately 1,500 students in 2014.
They participate in NCAA Division III and the Michigan Interco ...
, a Methodist school in Albion, Michigan
Albion is a city in Calhoun County in the south central region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 8,616 at the 2010 census and is part of the Battle Creek Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The earliest English ...
. Since her family frowned upon her decided career path, they refused to provide any financial support. At that point, Shaw had been a licensed preacher for three years and earned her wages by giving lectures on temperance
Temperance may refer to:
Moderation
*Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed
*Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion
Culture
*Temperance (group), Canadian danc ...
.
After Albion College, Shaw attended Boston University School of Theology
Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) is the oldest theological seminary of American Methodism and the founding school of Boston University, the largest private research university in New England. It is one of thirteen theological school ...
in 1876. She was the only woman in her class of forty-two men, and she always felt "the abysmal conviction that hewas not really wanted there." This attitude was furthered by her difficulty supporting herself financially. Already running on a tight income, Shaw found it unfair that the "male licensed preachers were given free accommodations in the dormitory and their board cost each of them $1.25 while it cost her $2 to pay rent of a room outside." Additionally, she had trouble finding employment. Unlike in Albion where she was "practically the only licensed preacher available", at Boston University there were many preachers who she had to compete with. As she lost money to pay the rent, she struggled to feed herself and felt "cold, hunger, and lonel " Now Shaw started to question whether the ministerial profession was meant for her. In the face of these hardships, Shaw continued on. In 1880, after she and Anna Oliver
Vivianna Olivia Snowden, (April 12, 1840 – November 21, 1892) better known by her professional name Anna Oliver, was an American preacher and activist who was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was one of the first women to attempt f ...
were refused ordination by the Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...
, despite passing with the top exam score that year. After being rejected from the Methodist Episcopal Church, she switched churches and achieved ordination in the Methodist Protestant Church
The Methodist Protestant Church (MPC) is a regional Methodist Christian denomination in the United States. It was formed in 1828 by former members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, remaining Wesleyan in doctrine and worship, but adopting ...
.
Following her ordination, Shaw received an MD from Boston University in 1886. During her time in medical school, she became an outspoken advocate of political rights for women.
Role in the women's suffrage movement
Joint effort with Susan B. Anthony
Beginning in 1886, Shaw served as the chair of the Franchise Department of Women's Christian Temperance Union
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program ...
(WCTU). Her task was "to work for woman suffrage and then to use the ballot to gain 'home protection' and temperance legislation."[Bilhartz, Terry D. "Anna Howard Shaw." ''Great Lives from History: The Nineteenth Century''. Ed. John Powell. 4 vols. Salem Press, 2007. Salem History Web. September 26, 2011.] However her focus on temperance subsided as she became more heavily involved in the suffrage movement by lecturing for the Massachusetts Suffrage Association and later the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).
Shaw first met Susan B. Anthony in 1887. In 1888, Shaw attended the first meeting of the International Council of Women
The International Council of Women (ICW) is a women's rights organization working across national boundaries for the common cause of advocating human rights for women. In March and April 1888, women leaders came together in Washington, D.C., wit ...
. Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony (born Susan Anthony; February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to s ...
encouraged her to join the National Woman Suffrage Association
The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was formed on May 15, 1869, to work for women's suffrage in the United States. Its main leaders were Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It was created after the women's rights movement s ...
(NWSA). Having agreed, Shaw played a key role when the two suffrage associations merged when she "helped to persuade the AWSA to merge with Anthony's and Elizabeth Cady Stanton's NWSA, creating for the first time in two decades a semblance of organizational unity within the uffragemovement." Beginning in 1904 and for the next eleven years, Shaw was the president of NAWSA. Under her leadership, NAWSA continued to "lobby for a national constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote."
Resignation from NAWSA presidency
During the early 20th century, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns
Lucy Burns (July 28, 1879 – December 22, 1966) was an American suffragist and women's rights advocate.Bland, 1981 (p. 8) She was a passionate activist in the United States and the United Kingdom, who joined the militant suffragettes. Burns ...
, NAWSA members, began employing militant techniques (e.g. picketing the White House during World War I) to fight for women's suffrage. They, like other members, were inspired by the success of the militant suffragettes in England. As president of NAWSA, Shaw was pressured to support these tactics. Nevertheless, Shaw maintained that she was "unalterably opposed to militancy, believing nothing of permanent value has ever been secured by it that could not have been more easily obtained by peaceful methods." She remained aligned with Anthony's philosophy that was against any militant tactics. In 1915, she resigned as NAWSA president and was replaced by her ally Carrie Chapman Catt
Carrie Chapman Catt (; January 9, 1859 Fowler, p. 3 – March 9, 1947) was an American women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920. Catt ...
.
Later years and death
During World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Shaw was head of the Women's Committee of the United States Council of National Defense
The Council of National Defense was a United States organization formed during World War I to coordinate resources and industry in support of the war effort, including the coordination of transportation, industrial and farm production, financial s ...
, for which she became the first woman to earn the Distinguished Service Medal Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) is a high award of a nation.
Examples include:
*Distinguished Service Medal (Australia) (established 1991), awarded to personnel of the Australian Defence Force for distinguished leadership in action
* Distinguishe ...
. She continued to lecture for the suffrage cause for the remaining years of her life.
Only months before her death, at an appearance at Baylor University
Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the ...
in Waco, Texas
Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...
, Shaw said, "The only way to refute" the argument that America was a democracy and therefore women were entitled to vote was "to prove that women are not people." She ended the speech by urging the women in attendance to become involved in the women's suffrage movement.
She was a speaker at the 1919 National Conference on Lynching, presenting women's suffrage as a step against lynching.
Shaw died of pneumonia at her home in Moylan, Pennsylvania at the age of 72, only a few months before Congress ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution.[
]
Personal life
Shaw built a home at 240 Ridley Creek Rd., Media, during her tenure as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Assn. (1904–1915) and lived there with her companion Lucy Elmina Anthony (1859–1944), niece of Susan B. Anthony, until her death. Lucy and Anna were together for thirty years, and she was by her bedside when she died.
Legacy
Her 1915 speech "The Fundamental Principle of a Republic" was listed as number 27 in American Rhetoric's Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century (listed by rank).
In 2000, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.[ Twenty years later, in 2020, she was named an honoree of the National Women's History Alliance.]
The Anna Howard Shaw Women's Center at Albion College
Albion College is a private liberal arts college in Albion, Michigan. The college was founded in 1835 and its undergraduate population was approximately 1,500 students in 2014.
They participate in NCAA Division III and the Michigan Interco ...
.
The Anna Howard Shaw Center at Boston University School of Theology
Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) is the oldest theological seminary of American Methodism and the founding school of Boston University, the largest private research university in New England. It is one of thirteen theological school ...
. Ten years after its founding in 1978, the Shaw Center was designated as the women's center for the Northeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church."
The Anna Howard Shaw Junior High School
The Hardy Williams Academy, formerly the Anna Howard Shaw Junior High School is an historic junior high school building which is located in the Southwest Schuylkill neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
It was added to the National Regist ...
built in 1922–1924 in Southwest Schuylkill, Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
is named for her.
A statue of Anna Howard Shaw was erected next to the Community Library in Big Rapids, Michigan
Big Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 10,601 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Mecosta County. The city is located within Big Rapids Township, but it is politically independent. Big Rapids is home ...
, in 1988.The Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw 1847–1919
retrieved February 5, 2016
See also
*"Anna Howard Shaw Day
"Anna Howard Shaw Day" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth season of the American television comedy series '' 30 Rock'', and the 71st episode of the series overall. It was written by supervising producer Matt Hubbard and directed by Ken Whit ...
", an episode of '' 30 Rock''
* Eastern Victory, car owned by Shaw
*''Iron Jawed Angels
''Iron Jawed Angels'' is a 2004 American historical drama film directed by Katja von Garnier. The film stars Hilary Swank as suffragist leader Alice Paul, Frances O'Connor as activist Lucy Burns, Julia Ormond as Inez Milholland, and Anjelica Hus ...
'', a television film where Shaw is portrayed by Lois Smith
Lois Arlene Smith (née Humbert; born November 3, 1930) is an American character actress whose career spans eight decades. She made her film debut in the 1955 drama film ''East of Eden (film), East of Eden'', and later played supporting roles i ...
*List of suffragists and suffragettes
This list of suffragists and suffragettes includes noted individuals active in the worldwide women's suffrage movement who have campaigned or strongly advocated for women's suffrage, the organisations which they formed or joined, and the public ...
*List of women's rights activists
This article is a list of notable women's rights activists, arranged alphabetically by modern country names and by the names of the persons listed.
Afghanistan
* Amina Azimi – disabled women's rights advocate
* Hasina Jalal – women's empowerm ...
* Timeline of Women's Ordination in the US
*Timeline of women's suffrage
Women's suffrage – the right of women to vote – has been achieved at various times in countries throughout the world. In many nations, women's suffrage was granted before universal suffrage, so women and men from certain classes or races w ...
* Ordination of women
*Ordination of women in Methodism
Methodist views on the ordination of women in the rite of holy orders are diverse.
Historically, as in other Christian denominations, many Methodist churches did not typically allow women to preach or exercise authority over men. However, in ...
References
Further reading
* (autobiography)
*Pellauer, Mary D.
Toward a Tradition of Feminist Theology: the religious social thought of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Anna Howard Shaw
'. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson, 1991.
*Franzen, Trisha. ''Anna Howard Shaw: The Work of Woman Suffrage.'' University of Illinois, 2014.
*
External links
*
Anna Howard Shaw letter from the Anna Howard Shaw Papers, 1917–1919
at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. UNCG, like all members of the UNC system, is a stand-al ...
Anna Howard Shaw quotation from the Anna Howard Shaw Papers, 1917–1919
at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. UNCG, like all members of the UNC system, is a stand-al ...
The Anna Howard Shaw Center
at Boston University School of Theology
Papers in the Woman's Rights Collection, 1908–1943.Schlesinger Library
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
The Story of a Pioneer
From the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
American National Biography Online, Ann D. Gordon. "Shaw, Anna Howard"
February 2000. Access Date: March 8, 2016
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Anna Howard
1847 births
1919 deaths
Boston University School of Theology alumni
American women's rights activists
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American autobiographers
People from Newcastle upon Tyne
History of Methodism in the United States
Albion College alumni
American women in World War I
American temperance activists
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20th-century American women
Women Christian clergy
American Methodist clergy
19th-century Methodist ministers
20th-century Methodist ministers
American suffragists
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19th-century American physicians
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Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army)
Civilian recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (United States)
Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century