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The Rights of Women in 18th Century America Essay

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The Rights of Women in 18th Century America

On July 4, 1804, a group of young men in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, offered a series of toasts to commemorate the nation's independence. Among their testimonials, they offered one to a cherished ideal:"[To] the rights of men, and the rights of women-. May the former never be infringed, nor the latter curtailed." The men acknowledged, even celebrated, an innovative and controversial idea: women along with men should be regarded as the bearers of rights. But why were women denied to bear their own rights?

"Let the defenders of male despotism answer (if they can) the Rights of Women" Just as the rights of man took on new meanings over time--meanings the American Revolutionaries had not …show more content…

"Discrimination against women throughout much of American history was caused by the prevalence of a masculine system of justice based on English common law" (Hoff-Wilson). "The development of the republican ideal as an autonomous, patriotic male citizen, proud of his maturity and independence, left women cast in the opposite role of dependent, unreliable, and weak" (Kerber). "The rights of humanity," Wollstonecraft asserted, "have been...confined to the male line from Adam downwards,: with the result that half of the population was kept from realizing its full human potential. They found that limitations on women's liberty was too controversial so they decided women did not need liberty. Why are general rights being decided solely from a male’s prerogative? Were men so intimidated by the thought of women possibly making an impact by voicing their own opinions and taking over their roles that they had to degrade women and not give them any other option but to remain submissive housewives forever?

For a brief period this all changed. During the American Revolution, the men went off to fight in the war and in turn, the women were handed the reigns and were running the show for once...although temporarily. The women took on their husband’s difficult tasks and were inspired to know that they actually did have the capability to run a household independently, and wondered what else they were being

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