Free Thinker: Sex, Suffrage, and the Extraordinary Life of Helen Hamilton Gardener

by Kimberly A. Hamlin

How one “fallen woman” battled religious ideology, pseudoscience, and political resistance to women’s right to vote.

Exposed in Ohio newspapers for an affair with a married man, Alice Chenowyth refused to cower in shame. Instead she changed her name to Helen Hamilton Gardener, moved to New York, pretended to be married to her lover, and became a wildly popular lecturer and author, brazenly opposed to sexist piety and propriety.

The “Harriet Beecher Stowe of Fallen Women,” she supported raising the age of sexual consent for girls (from twelve or younger), decried double standards of sexual morality, and debunked scientists’ claims that women’s brains were inferior. With liberal doses of feminine charm, Gardner networked tirelessly to persuade Woodrow Wilson and other male politicians to support the Nineteenth Amendment. Her effort, according to suffrage leader Carrie Pitt, was “the most potent factor” in its passage.

As more women enter politics than ever before, Kimberly A. Hamlin recovers the wildly entertaining and illuminating life of a brilliant, effective woman—all but forgotten—who paved the way.

Genres: Feminism, History, Nonfiction, Biography, Politics, Biography Memoir, Womens

400 pages, Hardcover

First published March 17, 2020

About the author

Kimberly A. Hamlin writes about women, gender, science, and medicine in the U.S.
A recent recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Public Scholar Award, she has just completed Free Thinker: Sex, Suffrage, and the Extraordinary Life of Helen Hamilton Gardener(March 2020, from W.W. Norton). Free Thinker tells the remarkable story of the "fallen woman" who reinvented herself, became one of the most sought-after speakers in 19th-century America, and then charmed her way into the Wilson White House and steered the 19th Amendment through Congress. Free Thinker unearths Gardener's incredible journey and centers both sex and race in women's long struggle to attain the vote.

Hamlin's first book, From Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science, and Women's Rights in Gilded Age America (University of Chicago Press, 2014), tracks the 19th-century women who drew on evolutionary science to argue for women's rights. Hamlin has also written about the origins of the Miss America Pageant, bearded ladies, the inception of the Girl Scouts, the history of women running for President, and the Equal Rights Amendment. She is currently involved in local and national efforts to highlight the 2020 centennial of the 19th Amendment, and she serves as historical consultant to the Bearded Lady Project (now on view at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History).

Hamlin regularly contributes to the Washington Post's Made by History column and other popular media. She has appeared on various public radio shows on both NPR and CBC and contributed to multiple PBS documentaries. A member of the Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lectureship Program, Hamlin lectures throughout the country.

Reviews

[Hillary Copsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's what I appreciated most about this bio: Hamlin allows for gray area. Gardener did lead an extraordinary life, arguing always for women to break free of societal restraints, and was instrumental in securing the 19th Amendment. She did so by using race-baiting arguments and leveraging outrage against the tactics of other suffragists. Hamlin allows these facts to coexist in a way many biographers do not.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book from Goodreads..
I found this book to be very interesting and educational. It was really interesting reading about suffrage and the fight to win the right to vote for women.
Helen Hamilton Gardner led a really different life than the social mores allowed during this time. I'd definitely recommend this book!!

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Kimberly Hamlin's "Free Thinker" is an insightful and seemingly thorough look at the life of Helen Hamilton Gardener.
There were many great things about this book. A few include the comprehensive coverage of Gardener's life from birth through death, the included information about the lives of the influential people in Gardener's life, and the in-depth exploration of the women's movement in the US. Gardener lived numerous lives in one human lifetime. Hamlin effectively explains to readers the life of Alice Chenoweth and the longing she felt to be more, the hardships she faced due to the American Civil War, and the hardships she faced due to her choice to be a long time Paramore of a married man during the time. I had heard of Gardener, but I have never learned as much about her impact as a lecturer, writer, and political activist as I did from this book. This book shows the in-depth research Hamlin conducted to produce this work, and the passion she has to put this information out to the world. I only have one negative, and that is Hamlin's interjections of something possibly happening, or imagining something happened rather than sticking to the facts. I see the narrative impact the interjections were supposed to have, but for me, those moments seem to take away from the power of the life Hamlin is telling readers about.

Overall, a well-written book with a wealth of information that will soon become a book on my history shelves.

[Miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough biography of one of the key figures who shepherded the 19th Amendment to approval. The author is not afraid to show this as a ‘warts-and-all’ overview. It’s unfortunate we learn that women’s suffrage came at the direct expense of expanding the right to vote for African Americans and Gardener (the protagonist) did not seem to have any qualms about this. However, she was a person of her time and as the book shows especially in the final third, she was a rampant pragmatist when it came to attaining her goals. Like ‘Rebel Cinderella’ (a book published the same day about women who lived in the same period but apparently didn’t overlap in similar social circles) one is not exactly drawn into the subject, but the detail that it goes into describing how the amendment passed in the final portion of the book is quite interesting and makes up for a person that one doesn’t have a huge amount of identification with.

[Kyndall Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this. I first heard the author on a podcast, then found out through an alumni email that she teaches at Miami University, so I had to add this to my list. From the first chapter, I was absolutely smitten with Helen. I’ve read so many book about women’s suffrage and the pioneers who worked so hard for it, but I’d never even seen Helen’s name. Her quotes made me laugh out loud, cry, and made me proud. I’m so glad this book was written and that I now know about this badass woman.

[Chelsea]

An interesting read about the American Suffragist you probably never heard of. She used persuasion at the highest level to influence Woodrow Wilson to push congress to approve the 19th amendment and had a very interesting personal life as well.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book and I cried when it was over! Definitely one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. A very moving portrait of an important and iconoclastic figure in the history of women’s rights. I felt like I really learned a lot through this author’s excellent writing both about the life of Helen Hamilton Gardener (an amazing woman!) and this period of American history in general. It was very well written and easy to understand.

[Misty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hamlin's excellent biography brings to vivid life a woman I can't believe I haven't heard about before. Helen Hamilton Gardener is a fascinating figure. Born Mary Alice Chenoweth in Virginia in 1853, childhood witness to the Civil War, she trained at a Cincinnati normal school and became the youngest school principal in Sandusky, OH. After an affair with a married man cost her her job, she ran away with him to New York City, changed her name, and went on the lecture circuit advocating that women be freed of the misogyny taught by the Christian Bible and treated like full people with fully developed brains--which, she also argued, were not in fact inferior to men's, to which point she donated her own brain to science as proof.

For many, that's colorful enough. But that's only the start for HHG. She goes on to be a published author, writing novels that openly advocate for abolishing the sexual double standard and raising the age of consent for girls. When her married lover dies, she moves to D.C., marries again, travels the world with her new husband taking copious notes, and when she returns to D.C. and becomes a much-admired hostess, she uses her charm and influence in support of the National Women's Suffrage Association (NWSA) and persuades President Wilson to support a federal amendment for women's suffrage. Not a single bio I've read of Carrie Chapman Catt (NWSA's president during that crucial period) has ever mentioned HHG, and yet the pictures of her with other prominent suffragettes suggest she was a big part of the reason (white) women the 19th Amendment passed Congress.

So why did she virtually disappear from history? Hamlin doesn't speculate on that answer, though I wonder if it had to do with G's colorful sexual history and advocacy crusades. Whatever the reason, Hamlin's thorough, detailed, even-handed, and engagingly written biography is a must-read for anyone interested in women's history, women's rights, and interesting women who paved the way for those who have come after to continue fighting the same old battle. We must not lose heart, even if 100 years later, we're still trying to insist that women should have the right to make their own choices about their bodies! Read this, share it, and help restore HHG to her place in history. For the interested, read my full review at femmeliterate.net.

[Jennifer Gingras · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book, so here’s my review. Reading about Helen Hamilton Gardener and her work with the suffragist movement has given me a far greater appreciation and understanding of voter rights and equality. Her childhood and early life is covered in the first few chapters, but I was far more fascinated by her public life and work. She was quite radical for her time and engaged in debates about women’s rights, women’s intelligence, and the unfair sexual double standard that repressed and ruined women while letting men do as they pleased. Though women’s rights have come a long way since then, it seems to me that many of the challenges Gardener and her contemporaries faced are still very relevant now; i.e. wage gap, reproductive rights, double standards, etc.

The biography itself is meticulously researched and never resorts to a dry telling of facts. At times I felt like I was reading a novel; at the edge of my seat to find out how the heroine would surmount the obstacles to get women the right to vote. Hamlin makes great use of the many letters and documents written by Gardener, her friends and colleagues, and the press. The text is full of quotes from these documents, which give a direct insight into their thoughts. It really brings some of the ideas and events to life. Hamlin also does a great job of remaining generally unbiased and not shying away from the racial politics tied into the suffragist movement. It is made clear that white suffragists were working for white women’s rights above all else, and were not immune to the racial prejudice of their time.

I definitely recommend this book. I’m going to see who amongst my friends and family I can convince to read it next.

[Nann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting biography of one of the key figures in the American Woman Suffrage movement. Helen Hamilton Gardener added philosophical diversity to the movement -- an avowed atheist who lived as a wife to a married man (who, apparently, continued to be in contact/visitation with his wife). She was a writer and a lecturer of note, championing not only the women's vote but also women's economic opportunity by raising the age of consent (as low as 10 in some states) to keep girls and women out of prostitution. After her "husband" died she married legally--a more stable situation--and when they moved to Washington, DC, her prodigious talent as a lobbyist was a direct contributor to the successful passage of the 19th amendment and its ratification by the states.

[Sherry Stanaford Stieritz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating account of post-civil war life for women and how she used writing and speeches to call attention to so many laws that led to unbelievably horrible ways women were treated. Ultimately used her talents to work tirelessly for passage of the 19th amendment. She really had President Woodrow Wilson's ear and played a big role in lobbying for the vote.

[Allison Lange · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look at a less known activist who deserves far greater recognition for her work!

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent new insight into the American women’s suffrage movement! I’m a scholar of suffrage & the history of feminism and I learned so much new information about the political negotiations & personalities of the suffrage movement. This wonderful biography not only shares Helen Hamilton Gardener’s incredible early life which intersected with a range of social & political & cultural movements of the era, but illuminates her critical role within NAWSA (the National American Woman Suffrage Association) during the final years & months of efforts to get Congress to pass a federal suffrage amendment. Gardener had the almost daily ear of President Wilson, and used her extensive social networks to reach out to every member of Congress. I left this book truly believing that the 19th Amendment would not have passed when it did without Gardener’s efforts! And then post-suffrage she still went on to have an illustrious government career in her 60s & 70s. Detailed & impressive scholarly research.

[Mariah Oleszkowicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book to read directly after reading about Alice Paul's suffrage influence - especially since Gardner was working in direct opposition to Paul. It may be because of Paul's extremism that Gardner was so effective in her lobbying. But that comes later - much later. Gardner (Alice Chenoweth) was so far ahead of her time in thinking about the rights of women, she had to wait for the suffrage movement to catch up. "She encouraged women to question the stories taught that they were designed by God and nature to be subservient to men; she demanded that scientific studies of sex differences be accountable to evidene and reason, not predetermined by male bias; she insisted that women had more to offer than their virginity and that men be held to the same standard of sexual morality as women." (p 303)

[Kimberly H]

This was my first introduction to Helen Hamilton Gardener, even though I’ve read other books on the suffragette movement. It is a well-researched account of her life, informative if somewhat written like a history textbook. On her personal life, I’ll say for a woman who called out mansplaining, she didn’t exactly choose wisely when it came to the two men in her life. On the author’s perspective, I liked that Hamlin critiqued Gardener and her fellow white suffragettes for all but excluding Black women during their years dedicated to the passing of the 19th Amendment. If you’re into biographies, this is a solid one.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hadn't heard of Helen Hamilton Gardener before reading this book, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Her life story was fascinating - she made her own way in the world, as unapologetically as she could for the time, and not only lived life on her terms but also put tremendous work into ensuring that her fellow women could as well. It was also interesting reading about parts of the suffrage movement that I hadn't know about before.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without Helen Hamilton Gardener, the 19th amendement would not have been approved by congress in 1919 nor ratified by a majority of the states in 1920. She was a remarkable woman who worked tirelessly to improve society. However, I don't remember learning about her in my history classes! The book is well written, well documented and full of interesting and important history.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography of a complex woman who championed sex education and health plus publisized sexual equality and awareness. This woman, Helen H. Gardener, marshalled women's rights and was a linchpin in passage of the 19th Amendment (women's right to vote). This is a tribute to her life, her struggles and her achievements.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about a lesser-known-to-me historical woman. Gardner seemed poised and clever and patient in her quest to achieve equality for women in marriage, voting, and more. It was quite dense with facts and figures and dates, which made it harder to get into at times. I found that if I read it for longer chunks of time, it flowed more easily for me.

[Melanie Vinton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blah. Not very well researched, a lot of conjecture about what she "might have" experienced or done or known. Lots of modern, partisan language. Not up to the quality of a good history book or biography.

[LynnB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and informative of an early pioneer of women's rights.

[Andréa]

Note: I received an ARC of this book at ALA Midwinter 2020.

[Amy Aldridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciate the contribution made by the author. I can only imagine the research required to contribute this comprehensive biography of a woman written out of history.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched and I learned a lot of about HHG, but took me a while to get into it and reads like a history book. Shocked that I’ve never heard of her before.

[Sue Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not for everyone. Long on descriptive details short on ideas.

[Leila Jaafari · Rating 4 out of 5]

The life of suffragette, free thinker and activist Helen Hamilton Gardener.

[Kinda Serafi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t know what to expect with this book, but I am literally speechless with how much I loved this book. What an amazing story about such an inspiring woman. It’s a story for our times.