Springfield writer writes play for women's equality

From:  SJ-R.com

By Tara McClellan McAndrew, Correspondent

Posted Oct. 28, 2015 at 10:30 PM

In 1840, some of America’s top female abolitionists traveled to London for the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention. To their dismay, the men running this important event barred them, saying women shouldn‘t be involved with men‘s business and the like. They let the women sit in a closed-off, women-only gallery so the abolitionists could hear the proceedings, but not see or be involved with them.

About 135 years later, Springfieldian Carole Kennerly was similarly crushed. She had worked fervently for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would give equal rights for women in America. It failed.

Her disappointment led Kennerly to write a play about women’s struggle for equality called “Rising Up of the Springdale Ladies Aid Society.” A staged reading of it will be performed this Sunday at the Hoogland Center for the Arts.  MOVE