"Cridge ridicules the cult of domesticity by exposing its
contradictions, made especially glaring when enacted by men." -Carol
Farley Kessler
Man's Rights; or, How Would You Like It? (1870) is a feminist utopian
novel by Annie Denton Cridge. Written during the early stages of the
American suffragist movement, Cridge's novel is a work of political
satire that uses utopianism and science fiction to explore the
progressive political activism of women of the United States and around
the world. Highlighting the absurdity of gender-based oppression, Cridge
produced the first feminist utopian novel in history, predating
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland (1915) by nearly half a century.
In a series of strange, prophetic dreams, a woman envisions a society on
Mars in which women wield absolute power over men. Unable to leave their
homes, made to perform domestic labor each and every day, the Martian
men have grown tired of oppression. When technological advancements
grant them more free time, they begin staging an uprising against the
women of Mars in order to demand total equality. Struck by these
visions, the narrator has several more dreams in which she sees a future
United States ruled justly and effectively by a woman president.
Detailing the reforms and advances of this utopian world, she begins to
imagine if one day such a future will finally be possible. Ahead of its
time and largely unrecognized upon publication, Annie Denton Cridge's
Man's Rights; or, How Would You Like It? is an important work of
science fiction and political imagination that not only sheds light on
the nineteenth century women's suffrage movement, but remains relevant
for our own, divided time.
With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript,
this edition of Annie Denton Cridge's Man's Rights; or, How Would You
Like It? is a classic of American science fiction reimagined for modern
readers.
