In all four of the articles for Tuesday, equality for women is the subject here. A great institution, marriage, was nothing more than a form of oppression, or in at least two of those articles, slavery. This, of course, was right around the early 18th century. One of the equalities mentioned was education. Mary Robinson’s A Letter to the Women of England (1799) is a radical response to the rampant anti-feminist sentiment of the late 1790s. In this work, Robinson encourages her female contemporaries to throw off the “glittering shackles” (p. 219) of custom and to claim their rightful places as the social and intellectual equals of men.
While reading these articles, especially Mary Robinson’s, I am reminded of an article by Mary Astell, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the advancement of their True and Greatest Interest and An Academy for Women by Daniel Dafoe. Both of these articles suggest building a school or type of seminary for women to go and educate themselves. Robinson tells us “she whose enjoyments are limited, whose education, knowledge, and actions are circumscribed by the potent rule of prejudice,” (p. 218). Later in the article, she says that she would build a university for women where their studies should be “proportioned to their mental powers” (p. 219). It is difficult to place myself in an 18th century woman’s shoes, but the restriction of learning would be a great encumbrance to any female who wished to be able to converse with learned persons, whether they be male or female.
I’m really glad that the customs of 18th century England do not apply nowadays for just that reason and more. A woman’s mind is just as powerful and flexible as a man’s. Perhaps that is the reason why ladies today do have freedom and equality; men were willing to listen to women and give them the same opportunities that they enjoyed.
Literature Rocks 