Answer: The speech is meant to persuade women, and the story problem encourages a woman to fight for her rights.
Step-by-step explanation:
Lucy Stone was a distinguished women's rights activist. She is famous for her "The Progress of Fifty Years" speech (1893), in which she focuses on inequality that women experience. However, she asserts that the situation has changed over the last fifty years, as women fight for their rights. In her speech, Stone wants to persuade women not to stop fighting.
Similarly, the story "A Widow's Burden" explores women's rights - rights of a widow upon her husband's death, in particular. Her stepson takes her property, farm, leaving very few items to her. Her parents support her in her fight for her rights, the same fight that Lucy Stone is talking about in her speech. Both the speech and the story, therefore, encourage women to fight for equality.