Woman: Man's Equal - Thomas Webster

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of impartial justice with regard to a portion of the human race, who, because of their sex, have for centuries been held in a position little, if any, better than that of slaves; and who, up to the present time, are deprived of their natural rights and privileges by the laws of our own and other countries, professedly civilized, enlightened, and Christian. While, therefore, the injustice suffered, both in the past and the present, by women, will be briefly presented in the following pages, there is still no wish to deprive the "lords of creation" of any really God-appointed privilege. But should we happen to come in contact with the selfishness and the usurped prerogatives of men, we will not hesitate to expose what we conceive to be grievous wrongs, because of their antiquity.

      There is no human tie so sacred as that of marriage; and yet there is no covenant so generally violated in some way or other by many of the contracting parties. The alliance, it is true, may be continued, and even observed, so far as the letter is concerned. But what of the spirit? When once true confidence is lost, the sublime and exalted character of the relation is destroyed. There is no longer any genuine affection, or real union of heart, between the parties. Nothing will destroy mutual confidence between two parties sooner than an arrogant assumption by one of them of fancied superiority over the other. Self-respect is an inherent principle in human nature. The mind of prince and peasant is alike actuated by it, and by an instinctive desire for freedom and independence of action, for the advantages of civil and religious liberty, and for the exercise of individual rights; and this instinctive desire is no less strong in the hearts of women than of men. It is impossible for a woman of proper discernment, and of refined taste and liberal education, to consider herself, simply because of her sex, inferior to her own male relatives, or indeed to any one of the opposite sex, of the same intellectual powers, literary attainments, and position in society. Nothing but the influence of a misdirected or perverted education, or the most extreme degradation and ignorance, can in any one induce the belief that woman is the inferior of man, merely because she is a woman.

      No business firm could remain together in harmony for a single day, if it were understood that one of the partners assumed the position that he was superior to the other, who, prior to entering into the partnership, had been received in the same social circles, and who had brought into the business an equal proportion of funds and of business talent. And doubly preposterous would the assumption be, if it were based on the fact that the assumer was the larger or physically stronger man; and, because possessed of more of the animal nature than his partner, it therefore became his right to dictate to and control the other.

      Such an assumption as this is no more absurd, nor is the reasoning upon which it is based more illogical, than that which asserts that woman, because she is a woman, is therefore an inferior, to be ruled at the discretion of her husband or sons in her own home; and that she ought to be contented to be considered such, and to be so treated by her own nation and in her own family. The carrying out of such an idea is more than absurd. It is monstrous. It is an imposition that has only been tolerated because the exactions are not in every case so bad as the system is capable of enforcing; and it is one from which every advocate of Christian liberty, to be consistent with his profession, should withdraw both countenance and toleration.

      The history of woman's wrongs has for ages been written in tears, often with her life-blood; and yet the volume has, in most instances, been concealed in her own bosom, notwithstanding its fearful weight. But if, at any time, as sometimes happens, unable to keep it hidden longer, she unfolds the pages of her grief to others, what an outcry is raised against her! The oppressed Italian peasant, the Russian serf, the Spanish or American black, all, if they are only of the male sex, may make their wrongs public, may even resist oppression to the death, and be applauded for so doing. But let a woman speak so that she can be heard, no matter how great the outrages from which she has suffered, let her couch her timid complaint in ever such delicate language, and what a storm of invective is hurled at her! The very act of complaining is declared—by the advocates of her inferiority—to be in itself unwifely, indecent. "A woman's voice has no business to be heard outside of her own house; nor there, if her lord decrees otherwise," say they. It is asserted that she has been induced to give publicity to her sorrows—indeed, has occasioned them—by peevishness or imprudence, or by something worse; and thus, by an, unfair, sometimes an altogether false, issue being raised, the unhappy victim not merely of oppression, but of downright brutality, is shut off from justly merited sympathy. And women, too, who are more fortunately situated, in possessing somewhat kinder husbands, or in being possessed by them, shaping their views according to those entertained by the sterner sex, unite with them in the condemnation of a sorrow-stricken sister; and, instead of making her burden lighter, contribute to increasing its weight. Such women having never felt the iron pierce their own souls, can not realize the woes of those in whose bosoms the barb is rankling at every pulsation, and they weakly fancy that the sorrows of those suffering ones are but the inventions of an ill-ordered mind, or, at most, that the picture has been overdrawn.

      Unkind men are not the only class, however, who assert the inferiority of the gentler sex. If they were, they might be disposed of in a very summary manner. There is another class not less dangerous, not less tyrannical or less arrogant, though somewhat more plausible. These speak, when occasion suits, quite eloquently, often with indecorous flippancy, of the "great influence which the ladies are capable of exerting upon society;" and for the qualified good which the orators graciously concede that women have accomplished, or may be capable of accomplishing, they bespatter them with a sort of sneering praise that is absolutely insulting to a woman of common sense. This style of fulsome flattery, with some degree of soft attention, graciously bestowed upon women, these men deem adequate compensation for all the indignities put upon their so-called inferiors. With what supreme contempt, therefore, must every right-minded woman listen to such harangues, or read them when in print!

      Learned orators and divines and grave professors may, indeed sometimes do, soar away almost to the seventh heaven while recounting the heroic or generous actions of women in past ages. Admiring audiences are told that "gentle women are the ministering angels, sent by the wisdom of God to be the comforters of mankind upon earth, as the beloved of our hearths and homes; that the world, without the gentle hand of woman to alleviate our sorrows, would be a dark and dreary solitude swept by the whirlwinds of despair." The delighted listeners are borne away on the wings of fancy—alas! it is only fancy—till, in imagination, it would appear that woman had escaped from her worse than Egyptian bondage, had crossed, without trouble, the Red Sea, passed the dreadful wilderness, moved out from the plains of Moab, and, by some peculiar magic of her own, had been deftly wafted over Jordan into the promised land; that already she had gloried in the tumbling-down of the walls of Jericho, and had enjoyed the triumph of having the delegation of Gibeonites coming, in their old garments, to seek an alliance with her as the chosen of the Lord.

      But let a woman allured by such an oration ask a right, and how soon the strain is changed! Let her ask to be placed on an equality with man in regard to the holding of property, or to civil or ecclesiastical rights, or authority or position; let the daughters ask equal rights and privileges with sons; let them request admission into the same colleges and universities with their brothers, so that they may compete with them for the honors and degrees conferred in such institutions—and what then? The flowery oratory is all gone. The "angels," the "heroic, brave, and virtuous women," have suddenly become agitators whose conduct is unseemly. They "are ambitious, indelicate, not to say immodest, bold-faced females"—whether of the human or some other race we are not told.

      Forgetting, apparently, that the Creator's universal law is liberty of thought and freedom of action, coupled with a strict responsibility for the use of both, those who are opposed to women exercising or enjoying equal rights with men, contend, as an excuse for their opposition, that some of the women engaged in the present reform movement are extravagant in their demands, and abuse the privileges they already possess. Precisely the same thing was said of the slaves in the South. Indeed, the same argument, variously worded, has been used by oppressors in all ages. "Ye are idle, ye are idle," is a very old cry.

      But, admitting that some women are injudicious and occasionally one is irreverent, are not men, in advocating their peculiar views on politics, the same, only in much larger proportion? Are they, therefore, deprived of the franchise or other privileges?

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