Rebels: Eleanor Flexner

Episode Summary

Title: Rebels Eleanor Flexner Paragraph 1: The podcast episode focuses on Eleanor Flexner, an activist and writer who authored the seminal book Century of Struggle on the history of women's rights in America. Though not formally trained as a historian, Flexner dedicated herself to chronicling the overlooked stories of women, especially black women, in the fight for equality. She conducted extensive research, aided by two black librarians, to uncover these forgotten narratives. Paragraph 2: Flexner grew up in an intellectual family in New York City. She attended Swarthmore College and was involved in leftist politics in her 20s while trying to make it as a writer in Manhattan. In 1938, she published a critique of contemporary playwrights, accusing them of ignoring pressing social issues. Throughout her life, Flexner was involved in labor organizing and civil rights activism. Paragraph 3: Flexner struggled for over a decade to get Century of Struggle published, facing rejection from publishers who did not see the value in highlighting black women's stories. When it was finally published in 1959, the book was pioneering in its scope and rigor, covering 300 years of the women's movement. Though initially overlooked by male reviewers, the book had an enormous impact on feminist scholars and helped establish the field of women's studies. Flexner continued to challenge norms by writing a biography of Mary Wollstonecraft. She died in 1995 at age 86, leaving a legacy as a rebel historian.

Episode Show Notes

Eleanor Flexner (1908-1995) wrote what became the preeminent book women's rights, during an era when “feminist” was a dirty word.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00: Hello. From Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica. This month we're talking about rebels with a cause. Women who broke rules and took major risks to upend the status quo and create meaningful change. The cause for today's rebel was a big one. The history of women's struggle for rights in the United States. Though she was never officially trained as a historian, she wrote what became the preeminent book on the topic during an era when feminist was a dirty word. Let's talk about Eleanor Flexner. Eleanor was born in 1908 in Georgetown, Kentucky, and was raised in New York City. Her father, Abraham, was the child of Jewish-German immigrants and was the first in his family to graduate from college. He went on to create something called the Flexner Report, which revolutionized medical education. Eleanor's mother, Ann Crawford, was a playwright. Her biggest hit was an adaptation of the novel Mrs. Wigs of the Cabbage Patch, a story of urban poverty. As the child of two intellectual powerhouses, lots of expectations were put on Eleanor. Her mother wanted her to be a writer. Her family expected her to go to Bryn Mawr, like her older sister. But Eleanor did things her own way. She went to Swarthmore. She tried to join a sorority but was iced out for being Jewish. She then campaigned for the school to abolish Greek life. Unsurprisingly, they said no. After some graduate work in London, Eleanor moved to Manhattan, where her parents had an apartment. There, in between moments of leftist activism, she wrote, In 1938, when she was 30 years old, she published her first book, American Playwrights 1918-1938, The Theater Retreats from Reality. In it, Eleanor laid into contemporary playwrights who she thought ignored the social causes unfolding around them. Eleanor practiced what she preached. She continued to lean into labor politics. She organized clerical workers and helped the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses fight segregation in hospitals. In interviews throughout her life, Eleanor never pointed to one clear, inciting moment for taking on her next research project. And maybe that's because it encompassed so much of her life's work. In the 1940s, Eleanor set out to compile a history of women in the United States. She knew she wanted to highlight stories of black women whose work had been largely ignored. I think it's important to consider what was happening at that moment in time. Women's suffrage had only been legal for a handful of decades. Many black women still couldn't vote. Jim Crow laws dominated the South. And those who claimed the word feminist often looked and sounded one way. White, straight, well-educated, and upper middle class. And here came Eleanor, a Jewish member of the Communist Party, who said, Because the story of suffrage that we've been fed isn't the whole story. Eleanor spent years researching. She tracked down one of the heroes of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which called 123 women and girls and spurred sweatshop workers to organize. She found the granddaughter of the only woman to hold a position with the Knights of Labor. And she found petitions calling for the abolition of slavery, written by women in the 1830s. Eleanor dug much of this up with the help of two black librarians, Dorothy Parker and Jean Blackwell Hudson. Despite her incredibly thorough and groundbreaking work, Eleanor struggled to get her book published. Simon & Schuster, the publisher for her first book, wasn't interested. Harper and Brothers told her to cut the stories of black women because they wouldn't interest a larger audience. In 1959, the first edition of Century of Struggle was finally published thanks to some convincing from a Harvard historian. The book covered more than 300 years and dove deep into the nuances of the women's rights movement. Initially, the book was reviewed almost exclusively by women historians. One rare male reviewer noted he thought she was too sympathetic with her subjects. A few years later, Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique, cited Century of Struggle. That catapulted Eleanor's work into the mainstream. More than a decade later, Eleanor went on to write another book, a biography of early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. But she never seemed to accept the short shrift she got when trying to publish Century of Struggle. For more than 50 years, Eleanor's work has been a source of information and inspiration for writers, historians, and students. By refusing to play by the rules, Eleanor laid the groundwork for what we now consider women's studies. Eleanor died in 1995. She was 86 years old. All month, we're talking about Rebels with a Cause. For more information, check us out on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow. SPEAKER_04: See you at the beach. SPEAKER_01: See you at the beach. SPEAKER_02: See you at the beach.