by Stephanie Durden Edwards

Created on: November 17, 2009   Last Updated: November 20, 2009

Born in 1938 in Idaho, author and educator Laurel Thatcher Ulrich penned the phrase "well behaved women seldom make history." The unexpected popularity of the quote prompted the author to write a book bearing the phrase as a title in 1991. As a feminist and a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a religion often criticized for its overly patriarchal culture and treatment of women's issues, Ulrich is certainly a candidate to test the veracity of her own theory.

A rudimentary examination of history lends a great deal of credence to the statement. Women were not long ago considered marriage property. Legal rights were almost nonexistent. Female history makers like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton certainly stand out in evidence. Even further back in time, many other women have proven the point as well. In the Old Testament story, Queen Esther led a life that stared in the face of convention when she risked her own life to approach her husband, the king, in an effort to protect the Jewish people when Haman, a prominent and well-respected prince derived a plan to have the Jews killed throughout the kingdom.

Esther risked everything and stood in the face of tradition for her people. Imagine history had she just been quiet and reserved.

Fanny Kemble was a British actress who came to the United States and married a wealthy land owner. When the couple married, Pierce Butler, her husband, had no slaves. Years later, upon inheriting his father's plantations, Butler became the owner of several slaves. After witnessing first-hand the deplorable condition of slavery in 1838, Fanny was determined to make conditions better. She went expressly against her husband's wishes, and the issues surrounding their disagreements led ultimately to their divorce. She spoke up boldly against the cruelty and inhumanity she witnessed first hand. It was quite a price to pay. Fanny was not allowed to raise her two young daughters in the divorce. She was not reunited with the girls until they were 21.

Fanny was not a typical Victorian-era wife. She was not quiet in her protests against slavery; and she did not simply close her mouth in deference to her husband's views. Instead, Fanny Kemble published a memoir chronicling the slavery she witnessed on her husband's Georgia plantation. Through its publication, Fanny Kemble let her witness to one of the greatest atrocities in American history be heard worldwide.

And then there is the life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, whose work changed the status of women from that of second class citizens, unable to vote like their husbands and brothers, to human beings worthy of the right to vote their conscience. Her life work also focused on breaking past the social norms of her day. She was an abolitionist. She was also concerned over the property rights of women, as well as their legal standing in matters of divorce and child custody. Her work, along with fellow suffragette and friend, Susan B. Anthony, paved the way for the modern women's rights movements.

Ulrich was certainly on to something. History has proven that it is the movers and shakers who change the world. Maybe it's the well behaved women who live lives of peace and tranquility, but it's the women who buck the system and thwart the status quo that go down in the pages of history books.

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