Both Abigail Adams and Judith Sargent Murray were advocates for women’s rights in early America. During this era women were looked at as being inferior to men. This perceived inferiority resulted in a lack of legal rights for women. For example, they could not vote or own property. Women were also not permitted to divorce and had no say in regards to any aspect of the home. This included the raising and education of the children and the right to have any say in regards to their own bodies.
Adams and Murray along with others led the Republican Motherhood movement after the Revolutionary War. The movement focused on producing success in America by enabling both women in men the chance to reach their full intellectual capabilities. They argued that the early education of men relied on mothers. This they maintained contradicted the idea that women were not capable of logic or reason. They also contended that being permitted to reach their intellectual potential would not interfere with a woman’s desire or ability to raise children, but would actually help to increase their children’s intellect. Given both the sexes the opportunity to be educated would they argued improve society. This was an argument supported by Benjamin Rush, who was one of the few enlightened men that lived during this time. He said that women “should be taught the principles of liberty and government; the obligations of patriotism should be inculcated upon them.”( Women's Rights and Human Rights.)
In “On the Equality of the Sexes” Judith Sargent Murray asks that women be recognized as being as capable as men. Murray wrote about how women were treated in society. She wrote on the lack of education for women at the time and chastises the idea that women are intellectually inferior to men. She does this by telling a story of a boy and a girl both two years old and how the girl may be smarter or equally as smart as the boy, but the boy will be encouraged in his studies and exposed to “contrary modes of education” (Murray) The girl’s intellect is repressed as she is indoctrinated into the societal expectations of women. These expectations were basically limited to have children and take care of the house. This is because of the lack of educational opportunity for women at the time as most females were not permitted to be taught outside the house. This prevented women from being able to achieve the same recognition for insights and contributions to society as men.
Murray calls for men to recognize that women are not lesser than them and for men to realize that women should not be forced to live in subjugation as wives and mothers but that women like men should have the right to be whatever they desired. She argues that women can and should be able to hold positions of power within the home and society. Murray accomplishes this with the use of irony. She may also be one of the first American women authors who argued that women have the ability to reason, saying
"Are we deficient in reason? We can only reason from what we know, and if opportunity of acquiring knowledge hath been denied us, the inferiority of our sex cannot fairly be deduced from thence I would calmly ask, is it reasonable, that a candidate for immortality, for the joys of heaven, an intelligent being, who is to spend an eternity in contemplating the works of Deity, should at present be so degraded, as to be allowed no other ideas, then those suggested by the mechanism of a pudding, or the sewing [of] the seams of a garment?"(Murray)
Murray did this in a well thought out paper in which she addressed the counter arguments that she expected men to have against women being educated.
One of the arguments that Murray addressed was the fact that educational pursuits would take away from a woman’s ability to do housework. She countered this by saying that doing menial chores in no way taxes the mind and that doing the same repetitive tasks day after day actually weakens the mind because the intellect is not utilized properly saying, “I answer that every requisite in female economy is easily attained; and, with truth I can add, that when once attained, they require no further mental attention” (Murray).
Murray also argues that women were created just as men. She argues that since the only difference between the two sexes are physical rather than mental. They should be permitted to have the same level of respect and opportunities that are given to men, saying “the same breath of God animates, enlivens, and invigorates us” (Murray). Murray also believed that educating women enabled them to have a say in their own destiny because they would be able to make their own decisions on rather or not they want to marry and even who they marry.
Abigail Adams was another early American feminist. She wrote her husband John Adams “to remember the ladies” while he and the founding fathers were writing the Constitution. On March 31, 1776 Abigail writes to John, “I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors”. (Adams). She goes on to ask that he ends the subjugation of women by their husbands by removing the power that they have over them. She reasons that if the law continues to see women as inferior to men. Women will rise up in rebellion because they “will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.” (Adams). On April 14, 1776 John Adams replied to Abigail dismissing her concerns, saying "As to your extraordinary code of laws, I cannot but laugh.” (John Adams). He goes on to say that men had enough to worry about with the war had causing the country to lose control of the children, Native Americans, slaves and the educational system. He goes on to say that women were already far too powerful, especially when it came to their husbands and that if a rebellion did take place men would fight in order not to be subjugated to women, "Depend upon it, we know better than to repeal our masculine systems. Although they are in full force, you know they are little more than theory. We dare not exert our power in its full latitude. We are obliged to go fair and softly, and, in practice, you know we are the subjects.” (John Adams).
Abigail responds to this on May 7, 1776 by telling him that she believes that it is hypocritical of him to speak of freedom and the rights of man. Since he is advocating for the oppression of women by allowing their husbands to continue to have absolute power over them. She goes on to say that the power of man is capricious and that when women choose they will “not only free themselves, but subdue their masters” (Adams)
Works Cited
Adams, Abigail, and John Adams. "LETTERS OF ABIGAIL ADAMS." LETTERS OF ABIGAIL ADAMS. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
Sargent Murray, Judith. "On the Equality of the Sexes." On the Equality of the Sexes. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
"Women's Rights and Human Rights." Women's Rights and Human Rights. Web. 27 Feb. 2016
