- Feb 2017
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Women must be free to act as responsible moral agents
This is an important claim that was a prominent argument in the Seneca Falls convention, notably as an argument of Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?"
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The social evils they attacked were, they claimed, so offensive to God that pious Christian women must speak out, even at risk of social censure.
This was an excellent logical grasp at authority for women. Since they were expected to be models of morality within the family (though they were denied the authority of the pulpit or even of the home), these women were able to turn that moral authority outward to shine it on social justice issues in the name of God.
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- Jan 2017
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They Write best per haps who do't with the gcn-111.uc..~ so., tile and easy air of Conversation;
It is interesting that she is claiming that the best writers are excellent, gentle speakers in smaller, private conversations while also declaring that women have no role behind the pulpit. She seems to imply both that women are naturally the best at speaking privately and conversationally, and implying that the best public speakers would be those who conduct themselves similarly, yet she clearly states that women should not speak publicly. There is some strange logical contortionism happening here.
In previous coursework, I've read feminist theory in which the authors would work within the acceptable framework of what authority women did have in society--typically, this was religious authority (but only as lay people, not religious leaders), or in morality and gentility. Although her declaration that women "have no business with the Pulpit, the Bar or St. Stephens Chapel," perhaps she is merely trying to suggest that gentility (which women are granted by nature) should give women more authority in private relationships, rather than public ones. The argument for private authority was sometimes prioritized over the argument for public authority, with the assumption that if women were treated equally as private citizens, public equality would follow.
Then again, the rest of this section is very black-and-white (and boring as hell) and does not seem to include any subversive plans to overthrow the patriarchy. So I might be giving her a little too much credit with this addition.
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