Weekly Reader: Mistress Suffragette by Diana Forbes; Fascinating Character Study of A Gilded Age Woman Turned Suffragist

 Weekly Reader: Mistress Suffragette by Diana Forbes; Fascinating Character Study of A Gilded Age Woman Turned Suffragist

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Mistress Suffragette by Diana Forbes is a historical fiction and brilliant character study about a young woman from a traditional Gilded Age family turned into a suffragist. Forbes explains exactly why many women turned to the suffrage movement because of societal pressures and unjust laws that treated them as second class citizens who lived without freedom of choice.

In 1893, Penelope Stanton is facing an arranged marriage forced by her parents. Her family was fabulously wealthy now they are facing potential genteel poverty because of the Financial Panic. Since they have two daughters, Penelope and her narcissistic sister, Lydia, Mr. and Mrs. Stanton force marriageable aged Penelope to search for eligible bachelors, so she can marry wealth and the family can move back up in status. 

Lydia looks forward to all of the handsome male attention but Penelope is not nearly as thrilled. As Penelope points out, she attends balls with all the excitement of someone with a gun pointed to their head. She feels less like a person to her parents and more like a piece of valuable jewelry that they want to pawn off to someone else. Her parents are practically pimping their daughters out in front of Newport, Rhode Island's most eligible bachelors.

 While Lydia is content to be married to a much older man, Penelope is raped by the already married businessman, Edgar Daggers. If she can't get married, her parents want to send her to work so they can help themselves to her earnings.

The Daggers want to hire Penelope as a secretary or governess for their future child which ensures that Penelope will never be safe from Edgar's leering eyes and wandering hands. However, her mother still encourages her union with Edgar reminding Penelope that "marriages don't last as long as they used to," even implying that she would still get a decent sum as an undeclared mistress.

It's a world of artifice, superficiality, and greed that Penelope's parents and Edgar are a part of and in which they want to sell their daughters. Penelope is screaming to get out and feels that no one is listening. It's no wonder that instead of accompanying The Daggers to New York, Penelope decides instead to move to Boston with her friend Lucinda to join the Suffrage Movement. Well Lucinda wants to join. Penelope is not quite sure yet.

When Penelope first arrives in Boston, she is confused by many of the suffragist's arguments, particularly about dress. She never thought about wearing a corset and assumed all women wore them. However, she sees Verdana Jones, a speaker and leader for the Movement, with her hair cut short and wearing bloomers and for the first time questions women's dress. Even though Penelope continues to wear a corset and traditional women's clothing through most of the book, the fact that she considers this question at all reveals her as someone who is beginning to look at women's roles more critically and objectively. She is even invited to speak at her first meeting in defense of corsets providing "structure and stability in a world about to unravel."

Penelope is hired by Verdana to recruit members and speak at conventions. Once she gains her voice, she becomes a vocal advocate for the suffrage movement.  

While navigating her way through the Suffrage Movement, Penelope meets a bevy of characters many of which are passionate about their causes: Her friend Lucinda becomes a card carrying feminist from the time they move in; Verdana provokes and amuses Penelope with her bisexuality, openly flirtatious manner, and militant outspokenness, Sam, Penelope's fifth cousin and ex fiance, is open enough to women's rights to become engaged to the very pushy Verdana; Stone Aldrich is an artist and illustrator whose realistic art depicts the reality of poverty in the cities like prostitutes, street kids, and trash cans; Amy Adams Van Buren Buchanan is a wealthy heiress who puts her money to good use by speaking out about important causes. These characters allow Penelope to view the world differently as she grows to admire their independent spirits.

Penelope's personal involvement increases when she experiences for herself the hold that society allows men to have over women. She and her colleagues are threatened by a neighbor and when the police won't do anything about it, she has to order him to leave them alone herself. Edgar continues to pester her and while he feigns support for the suffragists and gives Penelope a useful tip about Stone, who almost becomes Penelope's lover, , it is still clear that Edgar lusts after her and wants to keep her as his mistress. Later when Penelope returns to her family home in Newport, she realizes that her future brother in law uses duplicitous means to claim ownership over the family home. 

When the actions of men affect Penelope personally, she understands, truly understands, what the other suffragists were fighting for. Not just to wear comfortable dress without getting harassed. Not only for the vote. Not solely for legal rights to divorce, own property, or to have financial freedom. They are fighting for complete independence, the ability to choose their lives without conforming to some standard set by men. This realization turns Penelope into a dedicated member of the movement and allows her to change her own life.

Mistress Suffragette is a wonderful book about a woman who finally finds her own voice by speaking out for other women.