With the well-deserved attention being given to Martha Hughes Cannon, it is important to know that she was a suffragette but not a feminist. There is a vast difference between the two. They do agree on the right of women to vote and the right to own property, but they differ greatly when it comes to the family.
A suffragette worked hard to see that the woman was protected in her role as wife and mother. She promoted laws that required husbands to provide a home and support. Feminists would strip women of such protection, even advocating that women fight in the front lines of battle and leave behind babies and young children as was done during Desert Storm. Most men still want to "stand between their loved homes and war's desolation" but some feminists foolishly reject that protection.Cannon was a leader in maternity care and the protection of the mother and the newborn, never an advocate of abortion as feminists are.
Suffragettes also worked to see that women engaged in physical-labor employment were protected by laws and regulations that respected the physical differences and family obligations of men and women. Feminists deny that any differences exist. Suffragettes say women are equal but different.
Women of Utah are following the great example of suffragettes as we speak for families, the right of a woman to be a full-time wife and mother and that husbands are to provide the primary financial support and a home for her and their children, during their marriage and even when she is a widow.
So hurray for Martha Hughes Cannon. But as we praise her let us not forget she was a suffragette, not a feminist.
Betty Babcock
Lehi