from An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott (1870)

"Some time ago we got into a famous talk about what women should be, and Becky [the sculptor] said she'd show us her idea of the coming woman. There she is, as you say, bigger, lovelier, and more imposing than any we see nowadays; and at the same time she is a true woman. See what a fine forehead, yet the mouth is both firm and tender, as if it could say strong, wise things, as well as teach children and kiss babies. We couldn't decide what to put in the hands as the most appropriate symbol. What do you say?"

"Give her a scepter: she would make a fine queen," answered Fanny.

"No, we have had enough of that; women have been called queens a long time, but the kingdom given them isn't worth ruling," answered Rebecca. . . .

"Put a man's hand in hers to help her along, then," said Polly, whose happy fortune it had been to find friends and helpers in fathers and brothers.

"No; my woman is to stand alone, and help herself," said Rebecca, decidedly.

"She's to be strong-minded, is she?" and Fanny's lip curled a little as she uttered the misused words.

"Yes, strong-minded, strong-hearted, strong-souled, and strong-bodied; that is why I made her larger than the miserable, pinched-up woman of our day. Strength and beauty must go together. Don't you think these broad shoulders can bear burdens without breaking down, these hands work well, these eyes see clearly, and these lips do something besides simper and gossip?"

"Put a child in her arms, Becky."

"Not that even, for she is to be something more than a nurse."

"Give her a ballot-box," cried a new voice. . . .

"Thank you for the suggestion, Kate. I'll put that with the other symbols at her feet; for I'm going to have needle, pen, palette, and broom somewhere, to suggest the various talents she owns, and the ballot-box will show that she has earned the right to use them."

* * *

A feminist manifesto for little girls, published five years after the end of the Civil War! Alcott's books were bestsellers--hundreds of thousands of little girls (and their mothers, and their brothers, and maybe now and again their fathers) read this passage. Yes, it's a little bossy and didactic, but then again here we are in 2024 with talk of menstrual police. 

"I'm going to have needle, pen, palette, and broom somewhere, to suggest the various talents she owns, and the ballot-box will show that she has earned the right to use them." Imagine the impact of this statement. A ballot box symbolizes a woman's right to choose to do her work.

Kamala Harris for president. It's about damn time.