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This column is part of the observance of the Remnant Trust display at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.
“Are we so certain of always finding a man made to our hands for any duty or function of social importance which falls vacant, that we lose nothing by putting a ban upon one-half of mankind, and refusing beforehand to make their faculties available, however distinguished they may be? And even if we could do without them, would it be consistent with justice to refuse to them their fair share of honor and distinction, or to deny them the equal moral right of all human beings to choose their occupation (short of injury to others) according to their preferences, at their own risk?”
John Stuart Mill asked those questions in 1869 in his work “The Subjection of Women.” He was not the first to ask what roles, rights and responsibilities women ought to have. Nor was he the last.
Witness the most recent presidential campaign where women sought to occupy the highest offices of this country. There were many who wondered, is she qualified? Is she capable? Is she serious?!
Women have always been criticized, even condemned, for attempting to step beyond the boundaries someone else has set for them. In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft argued for the right of girls to be educated just as boys were so that as adults women might be partners with men, and not their possessions. She claimed that not only did women have the right to an education, but they also had the right to use that education to better their lives by obtaining work in the trades and the professions so that they might be financially independent.
“A Vindication of the Rights of Women” by Wollstonecraft was shocking, not only for the ideas of equal education and coeducation, but for the very fact that a woman dared to write and publish a book at all.
And to some today, such ideas and actions continue to cause affront. News reports from Afghanistan tell of schoolgirls being attacked with acid, their parents and homes threatened, their teachers murdered and their schools torched and bombed because these girls dare to presume that they have a right to an education.
The heroine of “The Female Review, or Memoirs of an American Young Lady” (1797) by Herman Mann was also denied a formal education. From the age of 10 until she was 18, she lived as a menial in someone else’s home. Though her employers treated her well, she “could not be spared” to attend school. She listened when the family’s numerous children recited their lessons, watched as they practiced their letters and borrowed their books when she could, and so educated herself.
The story of Deborah Sampson, as written by Mann, is much fictionalized and contains more of Mann’s own philosophy than it does of Sampson’s life. In spite of the many exaggerations, the fact remains that this young woman had character and determination.
She disguised herself in men’s clothing to join the Continental army, fought in several battles (and was wounded), and so proved herself as a soldier that she was eventually awarded a pension for her service by the Massachusetts state government.
It is also a fact that women in the United States military today are proving themselves. Like Sampson, there are strictures upon what roles are acceptable for women in the military and, like Sampson, the women today do what is necessary and take the consequences in stride.
The women in Plutarch’s “The Virtues of Women” also did what was imperative. These 27 narratives recount the “many worthy things, both public and private” done by women of various cultures. How ironic though, that a book, published in 1485 and used today under a theme of “Women and Power,” also contains Plutarch’s “Parallel Lives,” 23 paired biographies of famous men of his day. Even in the simple arrangement of a book, women’s lives are seen in juxtaposition to men.
Sampson’s story and the tales of Plutarch’s virtuous women are held up as amazing and rare instances of women’s noble deeds. Wollstonecraft wrote and published a book in a time when that was unheard of and that made her very well-known.
Throughout history, women have become famous because of what they have done as women. But perhaps true equality will occur only when women’s heroic actions or learned discoveries or creative endeavors or business and political successes are considered praiseworthy for simply having been done and are no longer notable for having been done by a woman.
