Addams gave this lecture at least two times; once at the February 2 meeting of the New York City Women's Political Union, and again on February 14 at the Boston School Voters' League. In the lecture, she discusses the philosophical relationship between women and the State and argues for the value of women in government, leading to the importance of woman suffrage. She may have also delivered a version of this lecture in Chicago on Dec. 8, 1910, to the Fortnightly Club.

Waller asks Addams if she can use quotations and ideas from Twenty Years at Hull House for promoting social reform to the public in 1912.