A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
justice which one half of the human race are obliged to submit to,
retorting on their oppressors, the virtue of man will be worm-eaten
by the insect whom he keeps under his feet.
Let men take their choice, man and woman were made for each other,
though not to become one being; and if they will not improve women,
they will deprave them!
I speak of the improvement and emancipation of the whole sex, for I
know that the behaviour of a few women, who by accident, or
following a strong bent of nature, have acquired a portion of
knowledge superior to that of the rest of their sex, has often been
over-bearing; but there have been instances of women who, attaining
knowledge, have not discarded modesty, nor have they always
pedantically appeared to despise the ignorance which they laboured
to disperse in their own minds. The exclamations then which any
advice respecting female learning, commonly produces, especially
from pretty women, often arise from envy. When they chance to see
that even the lustre of their eyes, and the flippant sportiveness
of refined coquetry will not always secure them attention, during a
whole evening, should a woman of a more cultivated understanding
endeavour to give a rational turn to the conversation, the common
source of consolation is, that such women seldom get husbands.
What arts have I not seen silly women use to interrupt by
FLIRTATION, (a very significant word to describe such a manoeuvre)
a rational conversation, which made the men forget that they were
pretty women.
But, allowing what is very natural to man--that the possession of
rare abilities is really calculated to excite over-weening pride,
disgusting in both men and women--in what a state of inferiority
must the female faculties have rusted when such a small portion of
knowledge as those women attained, who have sneeringly been termed
learned women, could be singular? Sufficiently so to puff up the
possessor, and excite envy in her contemporaries, and some of the
other sex. Nay, has not a little rationality exposed many women to
the severest censure? I advert to well known-facts, for I have
frequently heard women ridiculed, and every little weakness
exposed, only because they adopted the advice of some medical men,
and deviated from the beaten track in their mode of treating their
infants. I have actually heard this barbarous aversion to
innovation carried still further, and a sensible woman stigmatized
as an unnatural mother, who has thus been wisely solicitous to
preserve the health of her children, when in the midst of her care
she has lost one by some of the casualties of infancy which no
prudence can ward off. Her acquaintance have observed, that this
was the consequence of new-fangled notions--the new-fangled notions
of ease and cleanliness. And those who, pretending to experience,
though they have long adhered to prejudices that have, according to
the opinion of the most sagacious physicians, thinned the human
race, almost rejoiced at the disaster that gave a kind of sanction
to prescription.
Indeed, if it were only on this account, the national education of
women is of the utmost consequence; for what a number of human
sacrifices are made to that moloch, prejudice! And in how many
ways are children destroyed by the lasciviousness of man? The want
of natural affection in many women, who are drawn from their duty
by the admiration of men, and the ignorance of others, render the
infancy of man a much more perilous state than that of brutes; yet
men are unwilling to place women in situations proper to enable
them to acquire sufficient understanding to know how even to nurse
their babes.
So forcibly does this truth strike me, that I would rest the whole
tendency of my reasoning upon it; for whatever tends to
incapacitate the maternal character, takes woman out of her sphere.
But it is vain to expect the present race of weak mothers either to
take that reasonable care of a child's body, which is necessary to
lay the foundation of a good constitution, supposing that it do not
suffer for the sins of its fathers; or to manage its temper so
judiciously that the child will not have, as it grows up, to throw
off all that its mother, its first instructor, directly or
indirectly taught, and unless the mind have uncommon vigour,
womanish follies will stick to the character throughout life. The
weakness of the mother will be visited on the children! And whilst
women are educated to rely on their husbands for judgment, this
must ever be the consequence, for there is no improving an
understanding by halves, nor can any being act wisely from
imitation, because in every circumstance of life there is a kind of
individuality, which requires an exertion of judgment to modify
general rules. The being who can think justly in one track, will
soon extend its intellectual empire; and she who has sufficient
judgment to manage her children, will not submit right or wrong, to
her husband, or patiently to the social laws which makes a
nonentity of a wife.
In public schools women, to guard against the errors of ignorance,
should be taught the elements of anatomy and medicine, not only to
enable them to take proper care of their own health, but to make
them rational nurses of their infants, parents, and husbands; for
the bills of mortality are swelled by the blunders of self-willed
old women, who give nostrums of their own, without knowing any
thing of the human frame. It is likewise proper, only in a
domestic view, to make women, acquainted with the anatomy of the
mind, by allowing the sexes to associate together in every pursuit;
and by leading them to observe the progress of the human
understanding in the improvement of the sciences and arts; never
forgetting the science of morality, nor the study of the political
history of mankind.
A man has been termed a microcosm; and every family might also be
called a state. States, it is true, have mostly been governed by
arts that disgrace the character of man; and the want of a just
constitution, and equal laws, have so perplexed the notions of the
worldly wise, that they more than question the reasonableness of
contending for the rights of humanity. Thus morality, polluted in
the national reservoir, sends off streams of vice to corrupt the
constituent parts of the body politic; but should more noble, or
rather more just principles regulate the laws, which ought to be
the government of society, and not those who execute them, duty
might become the rule of private conduct.
Besides, by the exercise of their bodies and minds, women would
acquire that mental activity so necessary in the maternal
character, united with the fortitude that distinguishes steadiness
of conduct from the obstinate perverseness of weakness. For it is
dangerous to advise the indolent to be steady, because they
instantly become rigorous, and to save themselves trouble, punish
with severity faults that the patient fortitude of reason might
have prevented.
But fortitude presupposes strength of mind, and is strength of mind
to be acquired by indolent acquiescence? By asking advice instead
of exerting the judgment? By obeying through fear, instead of
practising the forbearance, which we all stand in need of
ourselves? The conclusion which I wish to draw is obvious; make
women rational creatures and free citizens, and they will quickly
become good wives, and mothers; that is--if men do not neglect the
duties of husbands and fathers.
Discussing the advantages which a public and private education
combined, as I have sketched, might rationally be expected to
produce, I have dwelt most on such as are particularly relative to
the female world, because I think the female world oppressed; yet
the gangrene which the vices, engendered by oppression have
produced, is not confined to the morbid part, but pervades society
at large; so that when I wish to see my sex become more like moral
agents, my heart bounds with the anticipation of the general
diffusion of that sublime contentment which only morality can
diffuse.
CHAPTER 13.
SOME INSTANCES OF THE FOLLY WHICH THE IGNORANCE OF WOMEN GENERATES;
WITH CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS ON THE MORAL IMPROVEMENT THAT A
REVOLUTION IN FEMALE MANNERS MIGHT NATURALLY BE EXPECTED TO
PRODUCE.
There are many follies, in some degree, peculiar to women: sins
against reason, of commission, as well as of omission; but all
flowing from ignorance or prejudice, I shall only point out such as
appear to be injurious to their moral character. And in
animadverting on them, I wish especially to prove, that the
weakness of mind and body, which men have endeavoured by various
motives to perpetuate, prevents their discharging the peculiar duty
of their sex: for when weakness of body will not permit them to
suckle their children, and weakness of mind makes them spoil their
tempers--is woman in a natural state?
SECTION 13.1.
One glaring instance of the weakness which proceeds from ignorance,
first claims attention, and calls for severe reproof.
In this metropolis a number of lurking leeches infamously gain a
subsistence by practising on the credulity of women, pretending to
cast nativities, to use the technical phrase; and many females who,
proud of their rank and fortune, look down on the vulgar with
sovereign contempt, show by this credulity, that the distinction is
arbitrary, and that they have not sufficiently cultivated their
minds to rise above vulgar prejudices. Women, because they have
not been led to consider the knowledge of their duty as the one
thing necessary to know, or, to live in the present moment by the
discharge of it, are very anxious to peep into futurity, to learn
what they have to expect to render life interesting, and to break
the vacuum of ignorance. I must be allowed to expostulate
seriously with the ladies, who follow these idle inventions; for
ladies, mistresses of families, are not ashamed to drive in their
own carriages to the door of the cunning man. And if any of them
should peruse this work, I entreat them to answer to their own
hearts the following questions, not forgetting that they are in the
presence of God.
Do you believe that there is but one God, and that he is powerful,
wise, and good?
Do you believe that all things were created by him, and that all
beings are dependent on him?
Do you rely on his wisdom, so conspicuous in his works, and in your
own frame, and are you convinced, that he has ordered all things
which do not come under the cognizance of your senses, in the same
perfect harmony, to fulfil his designs?
Do you acknowledge that the power of looking into futurity and
seeing things that are not, as if they were, is an attribute of the
Creator? And should he, by an impression on the minds of his
creatures, think fit to impart to them some event hid in the shades
of time, yet unborn, to whom would the secret be revealed by
immediate inspiration? The opinion of ages will answer this
question--to reverend old men, to people distinguished for eminent
piety.
The oracles of old were thus delivered by priests dedicated to the
service of the God, who was supposed to inspire them. The glare of
worldly pomp which surrounded these impostors, and the respect paid
to them by artful politicians, who knew how to avail themselves of
this useful engine to bend the necks of the strong under the
dominion of the cunning, spread a sacred mysterious veil of
sanctity over their lies and abominations. Impressed by such
solemn devotional parade, a Greek or Roman lady might be excused,
if she inquired of the oracle, when she was anxious to pry into
futurity, or inquire about some dubious event: and her inquiries,
however contrary to reason, could not be reckoned impious. But,