January 13, 1877

Journalist, abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Mary A. Livermore gave an informal address she called “Superfluous Women” in the Chapel. Mrs. Livermore’s explanation of the superfluity of women in America, the Vassar Miscellany explained, was that “while there are six per cent more male children born into the world, war and drunkenness, to which evils we are so little exposed, have always destroyed a large proportion of men. . . .The solution which Mrs. Livermore suggests seems to be the only practicable answer to the question…women need to be trained to self-support and independence.”