Eliza Bisbee Duffey

Who was Eliza Bisbee Duffey?

Eliza Bisbee Duffey was an American feminist and writer of the 19th century. She published several books in defense of women's rights.

She entered a controversy with physician Edward Clarke, who believed women should be educated separately from men at Universities, claiming common education would be dangerous for the "mental and physical health of women", in her book No Sex in Education; Or, An Equal Chance for Both Boys and Girls, where she argued for the equal and co-education of both genders.

Eliza Bisbee Duffey also authored books about women's health and physical and sexual education, What Women Should Know and The Relations of the Sexes.

Like most feminists of her time, she also opposed firmly abortion as a crime. In The Relations of the Sexes, she states that "The act of abortion which I had hitherto regarded as a trivial thing, at once became in my eyes the grossest misdemeanor—nay, the most aggravated crime. Being guided by this experience, I judge that this offence is perpetrated by women who are totally ignorant of the laws of their being. Consequently, the surest preventative against this crime will be a thorough teaching to women, even before marriage, of the physiology, hygiene, duties and obligations of maternity."