Judith Sargent Murray’s On the Equality of the Sexes was written to give women the education they deserved and needed. Murray felt that women were capable of doing more than housework; she believed they could do the same as men if not to be better than them. To prove that women and men were equal and should be getting the same education she questions, “May not the intellectual powers be ranged under these four heads- imagination, reason, memory, and judgment?” As the Enlighten women she gave evidence to everything she said or wrote. She proved that men and women had the same capability to imagine. She wrote “but as proofs of a creative faculty, of a lively imagination”, Murray’s evidence that women had an imagination was gossiping. If women didn’t have an imagination how would they be able to come up with such interesting rumors and gossip? Murray goes on to say, “Are we deficient in reason? We can only reason from what we know, and if an opportunity of acquiring knowledge hath been denied us, the inferiority of our sex cannot fairly be deduced from thence.” She is saying if they teach women physics, psychology, and other subjects besides the basics they can prove they have the same power of reasoning as men. She then proves that women also have the power of memory, because women memorize stories and share them with others. Murray wrote, “Female would become discreet, their judgment would be…
7. In 1784, Judith Sargent Murray published an essay defending women’s rights to education, a defense set in terms very different from those used by most men.…
In Pride and Prejudice, Austen criticises the education of women in 19th century England which extols the virtues of “the accomplished woman” and good wife. She elevates moral development and gender equality, as part of her didactic purpose, influenced by feminist Mary Wollstonecraft’s, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, “I do earnestly wish to see the distinction of sex confounded in society… For this distinction is, I am firmly persuaded, the foundation of weakness of character ascribed to women” and through her characterisation and caricature of Caroline Bingley who epitomises the distinction of sex in society, Austen portrays the absurdity of the value placed on accomplishments as Caroline asserts, “Oh! certainly,” cried his faithful assistant, “no one can be really esteemed accomplished, who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with!” highlighting her high self-regard. This is then ironically devalued in Austen’s authorial intrusion that she is Darcy’s “faithful assistant”. This serves to devalue accomplishments as a form of education and as an extension, society’s strict distinction of gender and status which Austen challenges through Elizabeth Bennet. In the absence of the “good” education that Caroline has…
In the late 1700s and early 1800s, education was strictly a man’s world. According to Debra Teachman in her article Women’s Education and Moral Conduct, Teachman states that “Women… had no schools of recognized academic excellence available to them and were ineligible for university attendance because of their sex” (Teachman 109). For Elizabeth Bennet, the main character in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, she prided herself on her intelligence versus that of her sisters and most men in the society. In Teachman’s article, she draws many parallels between the views of authors of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and the actions and beliefs in Pride and Prejudice.…
One of the negative traits of the Puritans was sexism. They were sexist because they excluded from decision making in the churches (002). Women were only respected if they managed a household (002). While male Puritans could receive a college education, women didn’t receive a college education, in fact women didn’t receive an education at all (003). It is sad that so much talent was wasted from women was wasted in the Puritan colonies.…
Envision you are walking home and you see a rally of feminists storming through the city. You shake your head at them, puzzled as to why they are causing chaos once again. However, you hear one woman scream, “I will not leave until I gain equal pay as the rest of my male coworkers! I will not keep quiet any longer!” According to The Washington Post, “the Census Bureau calculates that the median woman in the United States makes 79 cents for every buck paid to the median man.” (Paquette) Women have always been underprivileged compared to men. Zora Neal Hurston effectively used setting, figurative language, characterization, and the manipulation of plot in Their Eyes Were Watching God to inform the audience how feminism has always been present and plays a big role in our lives, whether we are aware of it or not.…
She said, "If girls achieve higher standards than boys, it is not the result of sympathetic female teachers: it is that boys fail to be motivated because of their attitude to women. Boy's early experience is almost entirely one of a society which regards women's traditional roles as trivial, dull and second-rate and dismisses their opinions. If girls have a positive role model in the female teacher, they will do better than boys. But if boys, unencumbered by society's prejudices, valued their female teachers, then their progress would match that of girls"(223). Obviously Cosker felt strongly about her point and proved an alternative explanation to Mooneys as well as Thomas' theory of female teachers being the cause of the boys lower grades. Thomas uses sarcasm as well to make his anger known. In reaction to her letter, he states "Heaven forbid that they [boys] should be given any consideration or compassion. Heaven forbid that the prejudices of the new age should be challenged. If you ever doubted that feminists have taken over from apoplectic old colonels as the great reactionaries of society, just read this letter"(224). If you read between the lines of his sarcasm, you begin to see just what he is implying. He is implying that she didn't give boys any compassion or consideration…
Sarah Moore Grimke was born on November 26th, 1792 in Charleston, South Carolina and died December 23rd, 1873 in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Mary and John Faucheraud Grimke and was the eighth child of fourteen children. Her parents were both slaveholders in South Carolina and her father was a wealthy plantation owner as well as an attorney. Growing up on a southern plantation, Sarah and her sister Angelina developed anti-slavery sentiments because of the injustices they observed on a daily basis. At age five, Sarah had claimed seeing a slave being whipped terribly and from then on, had hatred for slavery and wanted to look for ways to end it immediately. Sarah’s experience with education shaped her thoughts and ideas…
When I was reading On the Equality of the sexes by Judith Srgt. Murray, I was full of thoughts and amazed by her meaningful message. In "On the Equality of the sexes" Murray argue all men should be treated equally during the Revolution time. She never stops asking back the equality and opportunities for women's rights to discuss in politic, to read, and hear orations. Murray was one of those suffered women.…
With this idea in mind, it is known that women are generally seen as inferior when compared to men. Additionally, women were not granted the same rights as men until the 1920’s when the 19th Amendment was established. This, however, has caused a difference of how women are viewed and treated in society as opposed to men. An example of this can be seen in the NY Times article titled, “Equal Pay for Equal Play?” written by Carl Stoffers dated January 9, 2017. In the article, Stoffers writes, “It accused the U.S. Soccer Federation of wage discrimination for paying women less than men, despite equal work-and more success-from the women” (Stoffers 16). In this quote, Stoffers reveals how women are payed less than men even when considering the equal amount of work that was completed by both genders. This idea plays an imperative role to display how women are constantly being viewed as a minority group and seen as inferior to men, despite their greater success. Furthermore, even in today’s society women are still viewed as subordinate with the belief that men are able to complete a job more successfully than women. While the article discusses the inequality faced by women in today’s society, the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn reveals how this inequality was frequent in the past, thus revealing that there has been no significant improvement. For instance, in the novel Twain writes, “LADIES AND CHILDREN NOT ADMITTED” (Twain 152). In this point of the novel, the duke denies the presence of women in the Royal Nonesuch. Twain uses this in order to represent the rift that was existent at the time between the two genders. This scene acts to prove how women were not perceived as strong as men and were viewed as incapable of handling what a man could. In addition, this quote displays how women were constantly isolated from…
She uses the comparison between a two-year-old boy and girl. Murray makes her case that by nature the minds of women and men are equal, and it is essentially nurture that grants men their superior judgement. She writes “can it be said that the judgement of a male of two years old, is more sage than that of a female’s of the same age” To which she answers “I…
Sexism could lead to women feeling insecure about themselves. Society has very high standards for women. For example, women might be expected to be skinny or classy in order to be “good enough” and even then, they are not as good as men. When women are constantly told and showed that they are not as good as men, they start to believe that it is true. In Laura Bates’ book Everyday Sexism, which includes anonymous stories and quotes relating to sexism, a ten-year-old stated, “it’s more important for girls to be pretty. Girls are meant to be used as models, but boys are more clever so they don’t have to worry about their looks because they can get a different job.” Later on, her twelve-year-old sister agreed, “men are more powerful; they are firmer…
One of her most dramatic and radical assertions was to question the role of women as purely domestic beings. The idea that women were intellectually inferior, therefor they performed the least stimulating (though in no way easier) duties of colonial life was an idea she utterly rejected. She argued the opposite-that no one can reasonably expect a woman, who is continually forced to perform the same mundane tasks day after day to have the same intellectual vigor as an even slightly educated man. “Is the needle and kitchen sufficient to employ the operations of a soul..?” page 133. She believed that because women are intellectually equal to men, they should be privy to the same educational opportunities as men. The division of the sexes is something…
I noticed that women have worked very hard to live in a world where they are appreciated and accepted as men are. It is very hard to understand why men and women are not in the same social hierarchy. A woman is capable of doing the exact same thing a man does, it has been proven; yet men feel that they are superior. All of these women who have fought for equality: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, and many others are the reason I am able to go to school and get the same education as a male. They went through so much suffering so that future generation would have a better life than they did.…
The main character, "History of Art" teacher Katherine Watson, arrives at the conservative all-women college of Wellesley and tries to teach her really smart students not only art history but also independence. She also wants her students to know that their aim, namely getting married, does not have to be their only purpose of life, but that it is also possible to be married and have a job.…