Topic > Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the equality of the sexes

Elizabeth Cady Stanton with her draft of the Declaration of Sentiments, Margret Fuller with her book Women in the Nineteenth Century and “On the Equality of the Sexes” by Judith Sargent Murray , all share the fundamental basis of defending women's rights in terms of education, social affairs, as well as civil rights and liberties. All three women are noted figures of female empowerment and a general devotion to the plight of gender equality. Stanton is well known, among other things, for coining the idea of ​​the Seneca Falls Woman's Convention, which marked the beginning of the voting rights campaign to win the right to vote for women across the nation, where her first draft of the “Statement of Sentiments” debuted. Fuller, was a renowned author and teacher who, along with Murray, continues to be recognized and celebrated as one of the first American pioneers to write about women's rights and gender equality in her book: Women in the Nineteenth Century. All three authors and subsequently their texts address gender inequality, make suggestions for improvement and reform, and use rhetorical techniques such as logos, pathos, and ethos to incite particular reactions for. the intended audience. They address inequality as a social and cultural hierarchy in which men are the leaders and sole benefactors. They also suggest that both men and women should reform their beliefs about what women are capable of and entitled to in terms of education, social affairs, and civil rights, using rhetoric as a driving force for their arguments. Each of the texts, although in different ways, suggest that inequality serves as a function of a male-dominated social and cultural hierarchy... at the center of the card... to the domesticated woman who urges her to take care of her family by providing food for the body but also taking care of oneself in providing food for one's mind: a house is not a home if it does not contain food and fire for the mind as well as the body” (602). Murray, also suggests reform, encouraging women not to abandon their family roles, but rather to take care of their family's domestic needs dynamically saying "while we are chasing the needle, or the superintendence of the family, I repeat, that our minds are in full freedom of reflection; that the imagination may be exercised in full force” (405). By saying this she encourages women not to be passive but to be active and dynamic in their presumed roles as women, to challenge the notion of the archetypal woman who takes care of her family and has nothing that belongs exclusively to her and enriches the mind and subsequently itself.