Suffragists and Boston Marriage
“Do you remember, darling, a year ago today, when we gave ourselves to each other? We will not take back the promises we made a year ago.”
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields, suffragists and authors, 1880
A century before our Supreme Court ruled that the US Constitution guaranteed same-sex couples the right to marry, women had lived in life-long committed relationships known as a “Boston Marriage” possibly originating from the Henry James 1885 novel “The Bostonians” about two independent, outspoken women in a close relationship.
Romantic friendships were common at the turn of the century and women could be outwardly affection to one other, sharing kisses, hugs, and their lives. Even though homosexuality was taboo, intimate relationships were forged as women were encouraged to stay within their feminine sphere; it was considered endearing for a young woman to have a crush on another. Being isolated from the outside world brought women closer together, and because they were seen as asexual it was acceptable for them to openly display affection to each other.
A closer look at the letters and diaries of several high profile suffragists reveal Boston marriages, where the women presented themselves to the public as close friends and traveling companions.
In 1911, at one critical point in the suffrage movement, the top leadership roles were women in same-sex relationships: Anna Howard Shaw, Jane Addams, and Sophonisba Breckinridge.
Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association had a thirty-year relationship with Lucy Anthony, international suffragist and niece of Susan B Anthony.
Hull House founder Jane Addams was in a life-long relationship with suffragist and philanthropist Mary Rozet Smith.
Feminist and social reformer Sophonisba Breckinridge was in two life-long relationships with Marion Talbot and Edith Abbott (who were not friends).
Biographers are divided about suffragist and Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin, the first women elected to federal office in the US in 1916, and her decades-long relationship with feminist author Katherine Anthony.
If we look at the suffragists’ relationships through the lens of contemporary times, it appears that they were indeed in romantic, intimate relationships. At the turn of the century, doctors formed new constructs of sexual traits, giving us categories that were seen as deviant but before were acceptable. As a result, Boston marriages faded as our society became aware of lesbian relationships, and as a result, historians and suffragists’ families would minimize a life-long 30-50 year committed relationship.
Although Jewett and Fields poem above captures the passion of their one-year anniversary, and their countless love letters well-document their twenty year “Boston marriage, historians have edited out those details.
But to find an example of love that endures beyond public scrutiny we can look at suffragists author Willa Cather and magazine editor, Edith Lewis, her 40-year partner. Buried together, they have made their final public statement a testament of their love.