Juliet Hall Worth Stillman Severance (1 July 1833 in De Ruyter, Madison County,

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– 3 September 1919 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) was an American physician and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

of the 19th century.

Biography

Julie H. Severance married twice and had three children. She is a relative to abolitionist and suffragist

Lucretia Mott Lucretia Mott (''née'' Coffin; January 3, 1793 – November 11, 1880) was an American Quaker, abolitionist, women's rights activist, and social reformer. She had formed the idea of reforming the position of women in society when she was amongs ...

. She was one of the first woman physicians of the United States, having graduated in 1858 from Russell Trall’s Hygeio-Therapeutic College in New York. Severance later moved to

Whitewater, Wisconsin Whitewater is a city located in Walworth and Jefferson counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located near the southern portion of the Kettle Moraine State Forest, Whitewater is the home of the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. As of the 2 ...

where she opened her medical practice. She opposed

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

and

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

and supported the

temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...

. She was the leader of several Labour organizations. She participated in several anti-slavery, water-cure, dress reform, and dietary reform movements. In the biographical dictionary ''Women of the Century'' (1893), she is called "a radical of the radicals" and also "a model mother and a housekeeper". She campaigned for women rights and the right to life of the unborn child, believing that marriage and motherhood should be affirming choices for women. In her article, "Is the Present Marriage System a Failure?", published in the progressive Chicago newspaper ''Universe'' on 28 August 1869, she states: "Marriage should be a soul-union, not a curse ... not a merging of one life into another, but ... two individuals uniting their lives for mutual good and the good of humanity — it may be in reproduction, or it may be in giving birth to higher, nobler ideas, and outworking them in noble deeds and grand achievements .... There is not a child in a hundred that is begotten with the consent of the mother. As the present marriage system makes man the owner of woman — her legal master — she is expected to submit to his gratification .... When the marriage system is what it should be, and woman controls in these matters, instead of man ... Restellism bortionshall cease, because there will be no demand for it."

Works

Her works centered around the idea of marriage equating a form of slavery, the women's rights to take control of their health and the ideology that men should be held at the same standard as women.
A Lecture on Industrial and Financial Problems (1881)

References

External links

*
Juliet Stillman Severance Obituary at the New York Times

Profile of Juliet Stillman Severance at Feminists for Life Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Severance, Juliet Stillman 1833 births 1919 deaths 19th-century American physicians American feminists 19th-century American women physicians Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century