'In The Eye of The Beholder' Reading by Author Sharon Cathcart

Author’s Note This is a work of fiction. While historical persons do appear within the text, all events are of my own imagination. During the 19th century, and for nearly the first half of the 20th century, French women were not allowed to vote, nor to have a bank account or passport/traveling papers without express written permission of a father or husband. They had no property rights, not even to their own clothing and jewelry. They had no legal status whatsoever outside of being a daughter or a wife. These facts inform much of Claire Delacroix’s background, and her intellectual rebellion against her place in “proper society.”