Caroline Kennard

Caroline Augusta Kennard, née Smith (15 January 1827 - 24 October 1907) was an American amateur scientist and advocate of women's rights. In correspondence with Charles Darwin she challenged his views on the inferiority of women.

Life Caroline Augusta Smith was born on 15 January 1827 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was the daughter of James Wiggin Smith and Eliza Folsom, who lived first in Exeter, New Hampshire and later in New York City. She married Martin P. Kennard (1818-1903), a businessman in Boston, Massachusetts, in July 1846. Martin Kennard was an anti-slavery activist, who moved to Brookline, Massachusetts in 1854. Martin Kennard also maintained a successful business as a jeweller at Bigelow Brothers & Kennard in Boston. In addition, he served at an Assistant Treasurer of the Sub-Treasury of the United States in Botston, appointed by Presidents Hayes and Grant (1879-1887) and later by President Harrison (1891-1895).

In 1882, Caroline Kennard entered into correspondence with Darwin, arguing against women being judged intellectually inferior to men.

Kennard was listed in the 1885 Scientist's International Directory as interested in the botany of ferns and mosses. She published a biography of Dorothea Dix in the late 1880s which consisted of a collection of letters from Dix's contemporaries. The biography included letters from Jane Alexander, A.L. Barnett, James Freeman Clarke, John Murray Forbes, Robert Bennet Forbes, Horoatio Appleton Lamb, Mary S. Langley, William Henry Lyon, Andrew Preston Peabody, Samuel Edmund Sewall, and Edward Sterns.

Career After Caroline Kennard married Martin Perry Kennard in 1847, the newly wedded couple decided on a home located within the outskirts of Boston in Brookline, MA, moving in 1854. Caroline Kennard was a prominent member of a woman's group located within Boston, which was called the New England Woman's Club. This Club was the very first woman's club that had formed at this time within the US. During the 1880s and 1890s, Kennard was not only an active member of the New England Woman's Club, serving as the Vice President in 1893 for one year, she was also a member of the board of directors.

In response, Darwin wrote back to Kennard, referencing his work Descent of Man as he stated, “I certainly think that women though generally superior to men [in] moral qualities are inferior intellectually.”

Ultimately, Darwin’s response infuriated Kennard and she wrote him back on January 28, 1882, arguing that women were certainly “breadwinners” and were not inferior to men. She continued by writing that women were simply not given the same opportunities that men were, including environmental and educational opportunities. Kennard maintained that women were capable of being just as intellectual as men, yet the lack of opportunities afforded to women in society negatively impacted their level of intellect. She argued this was primarily because the scarcity of opportunities did not allow women to foster and develop their intellect, unlike men who were given extensive opportunities, especially in terms of education. In other words, Kennard believed that if women were given the same opportunities as men, the inequalities that women faced in society, like the notion that women were subordinate to men intellectually, would dissipate.