Woman, like man, should be freely permitted to do whatever she can do well. So said Frances E. Willard, who lived her life in the firm belief of this principle and who was instrumental in the passage of two amendments to the U.S. Constitution. A passionate advocate for women's rights, prohibition, and underprivileged people, she was devoted to making federal aid to education, free school lunches, unions, the eight-hour work day, work relief for the poor, municipal sanitation and boards of health, national transportation, anti-rape laws, and protections against child abuse a reality. Her sexual orientation is still debated today but she states in this volume: "The loves of women for each other grow more numerous each day and I have pondered much why these things were. That so little should be said about them surprises me, for they are everywhere... In these days when any capable and careful woman can honorably earn her own support, there is no village that has not its examples of 'two hearts in counsel,' both of which are feminine."