SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited by Deborah Madsen):

In this address Stow promotes veganism in the context of women's intersectional reform efforts. If the corruption of contemporary society causes society itself to be a victim, it is women as a class who are "hopelessly blighted by its ravages" (4, col. 4). She poses the question, “How are women going to reform this flesh-eating, fashion-polluting, whisky-drinking, tobacco-poisoned, adulterated-food nourished people?” Her answer is that women as a class must make use of “systematic organizations” (4, col. 4), such as organized labor or the S.S.S. [Social Science Sisterhood] which, indeed, supports the efforts to form women's labor unions..

Her speech offers “a retrospective glance” at “what has been accomplished by the Society since the hour of its birth” (4, col. 3), emphasizing that “[t]he S.S.S.  is an organization for the encouragement and protection of labor in woman's hands; to do away with sex caste in every department of handicraft, clerkship, science, and art; to teach girls the importance of application and thoroughness in whatever they undertake to do” (4, col. 4). Sexual desire is presented as “a destruction, more terrible than dynamite,” that Stow immediately links to a series of social ills, like fashion, alcohol, tobacco, and meat, that women must confront. The contemporary moment in which “theft, insanity, rape, murder and open revolt is on the increase” is partly due to “adulterated food” (6, col. 1). The only remedy lies in “the separation of the clean from the unclean” (6, col. 1). Women need “to practice temperance in all things. Eat only that which will nourish the blood, without inflaming it; drink nothing stronger than water and clothe the body in healthful raiment” (6, col. 1).

Stow explicitly mentions as a model to emulate the "Edenic" or vegan natural food community established by Isaac B. Rumford at Joyful in California (6, col. 1). “It is a notable fact,” she observes, “that the healthiest and longest lived people are non-flesh eaters” (6, col. 1). She advises against the use of medicines and promotes the proper use of “sun-light, food, dress, sleep, motion, rest, water, and self-hood” (6, col. 2) in addition to regular physical exercise, particularly for girls and women. If women can reform in these ways, Stow is convinced that “the age of all WOMEN'S EMANCIPATION from all sorts of slavery is at hand” (6, col. 5).