Women's Rights to Equality

Margaret Fuller, America's first true feminist, was born on May 23, 1810. Her education was unusual for women of her time, her father, a Harvard graduated lawyer, teaching her Latin at the age of six and Greek at the age of 10. Because her father worried that she was too blunt and truthful on subjects that others would normally avoid, she was sent to a school that would teach her social skills. Later in life, she became the first woman to earn a living at full-time journalism, writing for the New York Daily Tribune. Her life ended tragically when her ship, carrying her son, her love Giovanni Angelo Ossoli, and herself, shipwrecked off the Fire Island, NY, on May 17, 1850. However, her feministic beliefs did not die with her.
Crouse discusses how Fuller fought for woman's right to vote as equals among men, but, "she develops an argument that comes close to the modem understanding of socially constructed gender roles. (p. 260)" She doesn't want to fall into the fatal arguement that women deserve the right to vote because they have a superior moral nature. This arguement often led to the belief that women belonged in the household, promoting social and religious virtue, and not in the political sphere. However, it also allowed for women to become better educated so that, "they could be better wives and mothers, more suitably equipped to be moral guides for their children. (If They, p.262)" If the wife and mother of the household was better educated, then the children of the household would receive a better education in their early years, since it is up to the mother to educate them on moral and social qualities as well as basic academics. Emerson argued that, "women are strong by sentiment; that the same mental height which their husbands attain by toil, they attain by sympathy with their husbands. (If They, p.265)" Fuller wanted women to attain the same rights as man, whether through political or educational ways, and that they just as capable and qualified for these rights as their male counterparts.

Sarah Margaret Fuller (1810- 1850), Perspectives in American Literature, http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/fuller.html (accessed Sun 18 Oct. 2009)

Crouse, Jamie S."If They Have a Moral Power": Margaret Fuller, Transcendentalism, and the Question of Women's Moral Nature. ATQ 19.4 (2005): pp. 259- 279. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 19 Oct. 2009.