If you’ve been vaguely paying attention to the popular press this last year you would have seen the ongoing battle in the American courts brought by Britney Spears as she tried to have a ‘conservatorship’ order lifted that had allowed her father to completely control her life. It seemed incredible that these sorts of laws could still be enacted on women in order for men to control them and yet it used to be so much worse.

This is the incredible true story of Elizabeth Packard’s fight for personal freedom in the latter half of the 19 century in America. Incarcerated in an insane asylum for the (unproven) crime of holding her own opinions, she fought for years for her own and other women’s freedom.
Despite her life time of effort, some relics of these repressive and misogynist laws still linger in Western law today.

Kate Moore Reads for you

Kate Moore Interview

Reading supplied by author, interview by phone.