K2 is doing a research project on a rebel and she chose Katharine Hepburn. I went to the library to pull some books for her while she was home sick, and, of course, came home with one or two on the subject that I wanted to read myself. The story begins with her grandparents and describes the suicides of her grand father and uncle, and the precarious position the women where left in financially and socially. The utter dependence on men which drove her grandmother to push KH's mother and aunts into college even though educated women where undesirable. KH's mother fought for women's suffrage and birth control. Her aunt went through medical school and was appalled by the treatment of venereal disease. At a time when there was no treatment yet for gonorrhea or syphilis, women were infected, and hysterectomies performed if they did not die from it. Often the men divorced them for infertility or adultery,using the disease they infected their wife with as proof. When young brides died it was called "honeymoon appendicitis" and routinely covered up, even to the patient. It was a truly appalling time. I read it out loud with my 13 year old daughter next to me, and she was amazed. Study hard, never give up your independence I said, never let that happen again. Was there ever a time, in any cultures history, that women perpetrated such a thing on men? How does this happen?