Judith Murray On The Equality Of The Sexes Analysis

In 1790, Judith Sargent Murray submitted her essay, On the Equality of the Sexes, for publishing in The Massachusetts Magazine. Her essay called for women’s rights through education. Murray’s belief that women “are endowed with the qualities of imagination, reason, memory, and judgment” (Murray 177) aided her argument and showed that women deserve an education like their male counterparts. Furthermore, her evidence and rational explanation of the Creation Story, a chapter in the Christian Bible, solidifies her argument of equal education in a time when some of the population took the Bible at face value. There are limits to Murray’s progressive education beliefs, which can be viewed as being a product of her time. On the Equality of the Sexes

A common belief at the time was that women did not have the same intellectual aptitude as men (Murray 176). Murray sets out to disprove the belief through the image of children; “Will it be said that the judgment of a male of two years old, is more sage than that of a female’s of the same age? I believe the reverse is generally observed to be true” (Murray 178). Murray makes her point. In general young children have the same intellectual level, regardless of gender. Therefore, why later in life are adult men smarter than adult women? Does age and time change aptitude and gifted ability? Continuing with her line of reasoning, Murray proposes that women are not as smart as men because they are not receiving an education; “Are we deficient in reason? We can only reason from what know, and if the opportunity of acquiring knowledge has been denied us, the inferiority of our sex cannot fairly be deduced from thence” (Murray 177-178). Murray suggests that an accurate scaling of mental prowess cannot be deduced because men and women do not have the same educational level; the very reason that women are being denied and education in the first place. Women’s education has become a paradox. Women cannot receive an education because they are not smart enough, but they are not smart enough because they are denied an education. Murray, having now established that women should have an education, then sets out to explain its

Murray argues that; women’s minds equal those of men, women’s mentality will increase with education, and a Biblical argument is moot. Murray even mentions that strength associated with intelligence fails to discredit women’s intellectual ability because: a) the people working in the fields (such as African American slaves) would then be the most intelligent, and b) masculine women and feminine men exist (Murray 180). Her points, though, come with a caveat. Murray wants education for women, but for women to continue in their same gender defined categories. Women can use their educated minds to occupy themselves during the mundane tasks such as sowing and sweeping. In fact, she argues that women will become more complacent and lose the attributes that annoy men, gossiping and unnecessary visits, and gain characteristics men would prefer, such as discretion and better judgement. Despite her limits on women’s rights, Murray asks a question that rings forth by following generations; “How is one exalted and the other depressed…The one is taught to aspire, and the other is early confined and limited. As their years increase, the sister must be wholly domesticated, while the brother is led by the hand through all the flowery paths of science” (Murry 178). Murray fought for women’s rights through education, and