While your daughters enjoyed illustrating their visions of a better world, they also love listening to stories about women who had dreams and realized their dreams. They could not imagine a world in which women were discouraged from exercising and could only bob in water-logged swimming outfits until they heard how Annette Kellerman, known as the Mermaid Queen, showed women that they too could swim and do so freely. Appreciating their easy access to books, the girls were enchanted by the true story of Mary Moore from Limerick, Maine, who created the Children's Room at New York's Public Library, a paradise for children when libraries were generally only for adults. After hearing about Mary Kingsley's travels in 1893 and 1894 to West Africa, they knew that Mary Kingsley would have insisted that it was important for women to be able to learn about other cultures from first-hand experience. This afternoon, as they imagined themselves as Elisabeth Cady Stanton, they voiced the reasons women should be able to vote.
As we continue to read tales of the Greek gods and brave heroes, your daughters may be thinking about the courage these women showed as they pursued their dreams.
