Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife Harriet Porter Beecher. Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher's Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. In the early 1860s Isabella became involved in the woman's suffrage movement. Along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, Isabella organized the National Woman's Suffrage Association in 1869. She was also a founding member of the Connecticut Woman's Suffrage Association. Isabella's ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills' political work, On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.
In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman's Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and was invited to present her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife's abilities and supported her activity. John Hooker helped Isabella draft a bill presented to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but never witnessed its passage.
Click HERE to see photos from the launch of Tempest-Tossed: The Spirit of Isabella Beecher Hooker, the 2014 biography by Susan Campbell.
