In the Company of Like-Minded Women explores the complexities of bonds between sisters and family at the start of the 20th century when women struggled to determine their future and the “New Woman” demanded an equal voice. Three sisters are reunited in 1901 Denver following a family rift many years before. Each sister faces critical decisions regarding love, work, and the strength of her … convictions. The success of Colorado women in gaining the right to vote in 1893–twenty-seven years before the passage of national suffrage–and their continued fight for women’s rights, provides the background as the story unfolds.
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Interesting characters, a time period and setting that I wasn’t very familiar with, so I learned a little something along with being entertained. A fun read,
It took me a while to get into this book but after I did I certainly enjoyed it.
It makes you stop and think of women we’ve known we may have said were born before their time. There’s many more than we ever thought.
Many American women of today do not realize what went into the acquisition of the right to vote, acceptance into male-dominate professions such as medicine and law, making decisions about our own bodies, and just being treated as the human beings we are. This book chronicles the zeal on the part of a group of women in Denver in the early 20th century as they bask in their success of getting voting rights for women in Colorado and then seeking to help other states do the same thing. The plot is fantastic: a young woman from a “good family” from Tennessee by way of Lawrence, Kansas, manages to get herself to college on the East Coast where she is “enlightened” as to the plight of women. Meeting and marrying an engineer with the same passion to see women’s state raised, they move to Denver–then the frontier–where he is killed in a mine collapse leaving his young wife with three chidren and in the midst of medical school. Her efforts to hold her family together there because her family refuse to acknowledge her are amazing. When her sisters deign to visit they find a very busy young mother who has embraced Catholicism in order to get a job and is heavily involved in her community and the women’s movement. Gradually over a period of 6 weeks the plot turns ther naysayers into believeres in the mos unique way. You must read this. You will totally enjoy the plot a learn some history along the way. Loved it!
I thank the strong women of this era who fought the fight for women’s voting privileges
This was a well written book. I found the characters very interesting and informative. I had a hard time putting the book down.
This was a story about rebuilding relationships & having a dramatic control freak mother to recover from. From the description, I expected more about the early women’s rights (to vote) movement, but that topic was covered in conversation.
I felt somewhat irritated by the details concerning the religious views of a few of the characters because they didn’t add to the story. I suppose I was to be enlightened, but it felt like preaching. No, I’m not atheist or agnostic.
It’s a nice enough story, I just found a bit more veneer than substance.