The Woman They Could Not Silence cover art

The Woman They Could Not Silence

One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.
Buy Now for £22.99
Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

Elizabeth Packard was an ordinary Victorian housewife and mother of six. That was, until the first Woman’s Rights Convention was held in 1848, inspiring Elizabeth and many other women to dream of greater freedoms. She began voicing her opinions on politics and religion – opinions that her husband did not share. Incensed and deeply threatened by her growing independence, he had her declared ‘slightly insane’ and committed to an asylum.

Inside the Illinois State Hospital, Elizabeth found many other perfectly lucid women who, like her, had been betrayed by their husbands and incarcerated for daring to have a voice. But just because you are sane, doesn’t mean that you can escape a madhouse....

Fighting the stigma of her gender and her supposed madness, Elizabeth embarked on a ceaseless quest for justice. It not only challenged the medical science of the day and saved untold others from suffering her fate, it ultimately led to a giant leap forward in human rights the world over.

©2021 Kate Moore (P)2021 Blackstone Audio Freedom & Security Gender Studies Politics & Government Social Sciences Women Women's Voices Marriage

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Cultish cover art

Critic reviews

"Kate Moore has a rare gift for combining impeccable research and brilliantly mesmerizing storytelling." (Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today best-selling author of The First to Lie and Her Perfect Life)

"I have waited fifty years for this full-length biography of Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard, and Kate Moore's The Woman They Could Not Silence is simply magnificent." (Phyllis Chesler, best-selling author and feminist leader)

"In Moore's expert hands, this beautifully-written tale unspools with drama and power, and puts Elizabeth Packard on the map at the most relevant moment imaginable." (Liza Mundy, New York Times best-selling author of Code Girls)
A truly excellent book, very well written and incredibly detailed. Although no references specifically were included in the book in audio format, it would seem that a lot of this was evidence given at first hand by letter and/or journal form, and would also have included perhaps Doctors notes and court transcripts.

Astonishing revelations, I knew that women had been put into insane asylums because of perceived emotional disorders by their husbands and family members. What I did not know was that there were clitoradectomy's carried out as a part of the "treatement". My naivety was that female genital mutilation was something that was a cultural/quasi religious occurrence. However it seems that it was propagated by so called psychiatrists in London and in America as a way to treat "hysterical" women, and children, even very young children.

I am not a bra burning feminist, but this makes me sick and angry, "man's inhumanity to (wo)man" knows no bounds.

Infuriatingly so many of the men in this book used the bible as their defence, and as is usual and happens just as often today, they clearly have not read and understood their bibles. The honor that God gives to women and the instruction on how they should be "cherished" and "loved" and "cared for" is completely ignored because men always focus on "obedience".

The further inhumane treatment dealt out in the asylum was not perhaps surprising, but still horrific just the same.

The determination of this woman was incredible, I honestly don't know if I could have put up the fight that she did. How after so much awful treatment and betrayal by those she should have been able to trust she did not question her own sense of reality is astonishing.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

Absolutely brilliant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this very interesting book. I had never heard of Elizabeth Packard and was amazed to find out about her life and important role she played in reforming the rights of women and asylum patients. Wonderfully narrated by the author, it was a very enjoyable listen

Excellent book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A brilliant book about an amazing woman who dedicated her life fighting for the rights of women. Very informative, extremely well researched and often shocking. I cannot understand how I haven't heard of Elizabeth Packard before. Her name should be up there with those of Emily Pankhurst and Martin Luther King.
I will certainly recommend this book to others.

Couldn't stop listening.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Absolutely loved listening to this story of Elizabeth Packard. A true visionary on par with the likes of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Thank goodness she was not silenced. Kate Moore brings the story to life in a compelling way and her passion shines through. Inspiring.

Amazing when fact is a compelling story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Brilliant and eye opening book. Definitely recommend reading this to find out how far things have come but also to see how far there is still to go.

Strongly recommend

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews