The Woman They Could Not Silence

3.5 stars

Here we have the story of Elizabeth Packard. A Victorian housewife doing Victorian housewife things. And then one day she had the absolute nerve to be inspired and uplifted while attending the first (or one of the first) Womens Rights convention. She had the unmitigated gall to have her own opinions and thoughts that did not match those of her husband. So he did what any upstanding husband would do....He had her committed to an insane asylum. AS WAS HIS RIGHT AS THE MANLIEST OF MEN. Insert the hardest of eye rolls here

I had never heard of Elizabeth Packard before. Which is a pity. I absolutely want to read about women yelling FUCK THE PATRIARCHY. Elizabeth not only fought for herself but for all women. She went from a relatively sheltered life to realizing that she was not the first women or the last to be sent away by husbands and fathers for daring to think outside of the box given to them by said men.

With all that a being said, this book for me was a tad too long. The length of a book isn't scary for me at all. But sometimes less is more. This could've have benefited from being a bit shorter. Do I regret buying it or reading it? Absolutely not. But it did drag a bit for me towards the second half. Still worth the read.

Fascinating subject matter, well-structured narrative, and solid writing but too long and in need of tightening.

I could not put this book down. It was an incredible story of perserverence.

I have never been more thankful to be a woman of the 21st century. It's easy to hear existence of the history of women's oppression and shrug it off as something long ago with no relevance to our times. Hearing just how bad it was, (married) women having no rights at all, is infuriating. Elizabeth Packard's story is one of inspiration and persistence. Though there are still unfortunately areas where women are still not considered equal to men, it put things into perspective, and one has to be grateful for the times and assured hope is never lost.

That being said, I was not thrilled with the postscript portion of the book. I find comparing Mrs Packard's torture to modern day issues almost blasphemous (and frankly, ironic with one of the first quotes written in the book). I won't let this influence my rating of the story the book focuses on, but I must air my frustration that after spending three days enraptured by this book to have the afterglow tainted by modern opinion.

I've read quite a few nonfiction books about women in history and their lack of rights to literally anything, but every time I'm still absolutely baffled how much women were so completely ruled by men. By law, women were nothing and had nothing, not even the right or custody of their own children.

This is the story of Elizabeth Packard who was branded insane and put into an asylum solely on the word of her husband, who she had been married to for over 20 years and had children with, because she had the audacity to think for herself (the horror!) and have a difference of opinion about her religious beliefs. I kid you not.

The rest of the book follows her fight to get out of the asylum, make people aware of the abuse women had to endure, eventually change the law and ultimately get back to her children. She was simply amazing and I loved learning her story and what she achieved.

I actually can't believe that piece of sh*t husband had the balls to stick around after everything he put her through and she let him!! But I suppose it was a different time and it would have been another battle to get a divorce.

My only issue with the book is that it's too long, if I hadn't have been listening on audio I would have struggled with the length.

I liked this book and I realize that the scope was relatively narrow in that it really focused on Elizabeth Packard's experience of a somewhat forgotten progressive and political force. I do wish the author had been more clear that the advances she made for women's rights were great but also relatively narrowly focused on white, straight, cis, able-bodied, and middle-class women. The postscript does say that some of these issues are still plaguing women today and using suffragettes and Nancy Pelosi as examples. But still, it's missing the plight of a lot of actually mentally ill women, women of color, non-Christian women, and not middle-class women. Just something to keep in mind.

Reading this book was like riding a roller coaster! So many twists and turns.... What an amazing woman and story.