Judith Sargent Murray was a feminist long before the term was even invented. She lived through the American Revolution and was one of the first Americans to advocate for women’s equality. Her writing was carefully constructed to engage her audience and capitalized on the post-revolutionary fervor espousing the principle that all men are created equal. Murray’s essay effectively argued for gender equality through the use rhetorical style of logos.
The first issue Murray takes on is the notion that women are intellectually inferior to men. She argues that, “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” (133), effectively blaming the imbalance of education for perceived differences in intellect. Using this line of reasoning, she furthers the idea by comparing the intellect of 2 year old children as an intuitive example. From that age forward, “the one is taught to aspire, and the other is early confined and limited. As their years increase, the sister must be wholly domesticated, while the brother is led by the hand through all the flowery paths of science” (133). Society is therefore the artificial barrier preventing the
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It was thought that an educated woman would neglect her duties and as wife and mother. To counter this she answers that, “every requisite in female economy is easily attained; and… once attained, they require no further mental attention” (134). By anticipating the argument against educating women, Murray is able to articulate the counter-point that providing education to women will not affect their housework, since none of it is mentally demanding. These household duties remained a constant expectation, even throughout the progressive Enlightenment period which influenced Murray’s conversion to