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Two Handbills of Articles on Feminism and Equal Rights for Women

1943Best.-Nr. 8330Washington D.C.: National Woman's Party 1943. Very good. 14” x 4Â¼”; 11” x 4Â¼”. Handbills. Very good: a bit of light creasing and corner wear; faint scuff to one top edge. This is a set of two handbills written by a noted feminist and leader in the fight for women's rights Alma Lutz. Alma Lutz was born in 1890 and graduated from Vassar College in 1912. She was a writer and editor for the National Woman's Party NWP from the 1920s to the 1940s and was for many years a member of the party's national council. Lutz published numerous books and articles on women's rights and women's history not limited to Created Equal: A Biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton published in 1940 Susan B. Anthony: Rebel Crusader Humanitarian 1959 and Crusade for Freedom: Women of the Anti-Slavery Movement 1968. She was part of historian Mary Beard's circle of women activists and scholars and served on the advisory board of the Schlesinger Library. Lutz died in 1973. The text on these handbills originated in a column entitled “A Feminist Thinks It Over By Alma Lutz” printed in Equal Rights the official magazine of the NWP. Founded in 1923 the publication was directed towards women but also strove to educate men about the benefits of women's suffrage and women's rights. NWP an outgrowth of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage was formed in 1913 by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. The group is best known for its efforts in writing revising publicizing and advocating for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment; they fought for this bill for decades including a pivotal rewrite in 1943 and it was finally passed in 1972. One of the present editorials urged “Women Your Country Needs You!” It noted that women held “fewer public offices in the United States than in countries which we regard as far less progressive” likely due to having been taught “for so many generations that government is man's sphere and subconsciously this fallacy still controls their thinking.” Lutz pled that the nation needed its women “not only to keep up morale not only to bind up its wounds” but also to “share in government.” The other handbill bemoaned “The Blindness Of The Exceptional Woman”: “Why is it that women are still afraid of the words freedom and equality when applied to them Why are they still so eager to hide from the term equal rights Why do they think that other freedoms and other rights are more important than their own” While Lutz may not have had the answers she did argue that the ongoing struggle for “an amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing to women justice and equal rights with men under our laws” was as “noble a goal” as the Declaration of Independence. Rare handbills showcasing the work of an important feminist writer and leader. Not located in OCLC nor in the finding aids for any collections of Lutz' papers. [National Woman's Party] unknown