In 1853, Abigail Scott was a 19-year-old school teacher in Oregon Territory when she married Ben Duniway. Marriage meant giving up on teaching, but Abigail always believed she was meant to be more than a good wife and mother. When financial mistakes and an injury force Ben to stop working, Abigail becomes the primary breadwinner for her growing family. What she sees as a working woman appalls her, and she devotes her life to fighting for the rights of women, including their right to vote.
Following Abigail as she bears six children, runs a millinery and a private school, helps on the farm, writes novels, gives speeches, and eventually runs a newspaper supporting women's suffrage, Something Worth Doing explores issues that will resonate strongly with modern women: the pull between career and family, finding one's place in the public sphere, and dealing with frustrations and prejudices women encounter when they compete in male-dominated spaces. Based on a true story of a pioneer for women's rights from award-winning author Jane Kirkpatrick will inspire you to believe that some things are worth doing--even when the cost is great.
★★★1/2
Inspired by the real life of suffragist and writer Abigail Duniway, Jane Kirkpatrick's Something Worth Doing imagines what the woman behind the historical figure might have been like in the quiet moments of her day to day life. Starting in the early 1850s, we meet Abigail Jane "Jenny" Scott as a young woman on the verge of her twenties. Having survived the arduous trip across the Oregon Trail --- a journey that claimed the lives of her mother and one of her brothers --- Jenny takes a position as a schoolteacher in the Oregon Territory. Working as one of the primary breadwinners for her family, it's initially Jenny's intention to prove herself a capable, independent woman with the means to support herself. That goal takes a backseat once she sets her eyes on tall, handsome Ben Duniway, who is equally smitten with her.
Though it doesn't take long for the two to start having talks of marriage, they're perfectly content to have a long engagement. That is until Jenny's dad finds himself in hot water with a situation involving his new wife, a delicate matter that's likely to have trickle down consequences for the rest of the family. To save face amongst nice society folk, Jenny and her sister Fanny, being the elder girls, are pushed into marrying early. In August of 1853, Jenny Scott becomes Abigail Duniway (wishing to drop the childhood nickname now that she was a married woman).
"I couldn't be happier, Jenny," Ben said.
"It's a good day, Ben Duniway." And so it was. Perhaps not the sweeping romantic fantasy she'd thought of when she read those novels her mother slipped into the house, but sweet and safe nonetheless. This man beside her loved her, and while she wasn't sure what love was, she knew that when he touched her hand to help her from the wagon, then held her close to his chest, she felt warm and wanted, and worries over the past and of the future sank like the sunset, slow and easy from their view. Surely, if that was not love, it was close.
Two weeks later, sister Fanny is married off to Amos Cook, a pioneer twenty years her senior. Though Amos is well liked and respected within the community, it is not a love match for Fanny...at least not at first.
The Duniways find themselves weathering plenty of hardships pretty much right out the gate. In less than three years, Abigail is already the mother of 2 children, having significant tearing and other difficulties with both births, difficulties that would shadow her not only through future pregnancies but for the rest of her life. Within the first five years, their homestead, Hardscrabble Farm, suffers not only a surprise tornado touch-down but also a fire that pretty much turns the whole place into an ash pile. Hardscrabble Farm, indeed! Tired of rebuilding and making do, Abigail convinces Ben to move the family to a new place, a cheery place closer to her sisters. This new address Abigail dubs Sunny Hillside Farm. But it's not to be a forever home. Abigail is left picking up the pieces after Ben ignores her advice and gets into a bad financial deal. Abigail, though constrained by the limited resources offered to women of the day, does her best to pull up the ol' bootstraps and find means to support her family, not only after her husband runs them into bankruptcy, but also sustains a serious back injury that leaves him unable to do much in the way of employment himself (without the fear of re-injury).
Though she does what she has to do to make sure the family remains sufficiently clothed and fed, Abigail carries a lot of depression stemming from the sense of lost dreams, the monotony of domestic life, that feeling of "is this all there is for me?" To break up the drudgery of her daily work, she begins crafting writing pieces in her mind -- stories, poems, the seeds of op ed pieces, whatever comes to mind --- later writing them down and submitting them to local periodicals. To protect the Duniway name (in case her writings are not well received by the public), she uses pseudonyms like Jenny Glen or the more anonymous "The Farmer's Wife". Ben enjoys and encourages her writing pursuits and growing feminism, though he still cringes at the thought of her possibly one day "up on some stage like I hear those Eastern* women sometimes do" (*East Coast suffragists). Abigail assures her husband that she tends to prefer what she calls "the still hunt", fighting the good fight with quiet but powerful actions rather than "flamboyance or efforts that might suggest we'd neglect our duties as wives and mothers."
Ben himself is a bit of an uncommon type of husband for his era. Not only does he not feel threatened by his wife's thirst for knowledge and opportunities for female empowerment, he even helps with domestic duties, taking on a good portion of the cooking and childcare around the house. The one exception to this might be that loan that ends up getting them all in trouble, when Abigail says as much and Ben basically tells her to get back in the kitchen, men are talking.... but other than that lol .... and BOY, does he eat humble pie later!
Jenny carries a dream in the back of her mind to one day run her own newspaper, a platform where she could publish / discuss anything she wanted to, a paper dedicated to specifically covering the issues of women, promoting gender / wage equality while also still praising the importance of domestic arts (though Abigail herself quickly admits she is not the most enthusiastic homemaker). Though the very idea thrills her, after so many financial hardships already, she's fearful to tackle anything that will compromise her family's hard-earned comforts. But as it often goes, if it's important enough, matters of love and life tend to find a way...though part of that journey would mean going up against her brother, Harvey Scott, longtime editor of The Oregonian and strongly against the suffragist movement for the majority of his life. Though the two had a nearly lifelong rivalry / feud, it's said that, given some of Harvey's unexpected kindnesses towards his sister in later years, they likely came to some kind of truce shortly before Harvey's passing in 1910).
Abigail didn't believe that women would somehow be better voters than men, more moral or noble. Rather, she thought that the domestic lives of men and women would be better if women were seen as equal citizens and could contribute fully their talents to society at large.
Abigail's growing support of the suffragist movement prompts her to help in any way she can to fight for equal rights for women in the home and workplace. In later years, her work as a suffragist would also have her rubbing elbows with those in the abolitionist and temperance movements. The state of Oregon would go through six separate campaigns for voting rights for women (more than any other state in the nation), each ending in defeat before finally, in 1912, becoming the 7th state to pass the legislation allowing women to vote. This was a full eight years before the law would be nationally ratified, becoming the 19th Amendment of the US Constitution. Though an elderly woman by then, Abigail DID live long enough to officially vote in an election just as she'd always hoped.
While her activism work and the sheer stick-to-it-edness she developed living in a decidly man's world is certainly an impressive enough story on its own, there are other important themes we can take away from Abigail's life: the power in a woman openly expressing pride in her husband, what that can do for a spouse's sense of self when they are secretly struggling inside (and vice versa, the benefit of a man being loud and proud about his awesome wife!); how unbelievable hardships can set one on the road to greater abundance than they ever thought possible, simply by standing by the mantra, "We'll figure it out. We'll find a way."
Though the writing got just a tad dry for me in sections of Part 3, the Clara scene towards the end was sadly moving. When it came to the Duniways, I recognized much of myself in Abigail, and my own husband in Ben, the way Ben provides his "Jenny" with the emotional space to think on who she is, who she wants to be, what professional passions she might like to pursue... and all this in a time when husbands were expected to have a stronger, more domineering hand with their wives! But on Mrs Duniway's more, shall we say, "prickly attitude" days (like I said, I recognized myself here lol), Ben just rolls with it and gives her time to calm and sort out her mind, helping her in whatever way he can. The union is not without its challenges, but it's ideal in the way they remain dedicated to each other, even in times of strife, moving towards the future as a team rather than rivals. The structure of their relationship ultimately provides the perfect foundation & support system for Abigail to carry out the work she feels she was called to do.
FTC Disclaimer: Revell Publishing kindly provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions above are entirely my own.
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