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

fights for women’s education in three ways; the explanation of equal minds, the progress that will be made by women, and women’s desire for education as seen in the Bible.
First, Murray proposes that women and men have equal minds.

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

advantages.
Murray’s second argument for women’s education proposes future advancements made by women receiving equal education. Murray begins by expanding that uneducated women are unhappy in their lives and states that single women “…in vain seek to fill up time from sexual employments or amusements” (Murray 178) because of their “want of a cultivated mind (Murray 178). Murray believes that if women were educated, this would cease and women would make progress as a collective gender. Women would abandon the trivial things they employ to amuse themselves and further devote themselves to intellectual excellence and tasks of greater importance (Murray 179). Murray also suggests that educated women are “thus be rendered fit companions for those, who should one day wear them as their crown” (Murray 179). Murray continues by explaining that women’s wandering minds during daily household chores will be filled with important thought and “will then be worthy of rational beings” (Murray 179). Murray’s point, however, is also a limit on her belief of women’s rights. Murray states that the focus of women’s education will be a benefit for her husband, for her husband to use, and that an education will help women in their gender defined roles.
Finally, Murray finishes her essay with a letter to a friend from 1780. In her letter, Murray sets out to convince a friend that his faith-based argument against women’s education is incorrect. She begins the letter with a saucy introduction, stating that she holds the Biblical stories to be “merely metaphorical” and that she “could not persuade [herself] that there was any propriety in bringing them to decide in this very important decision” (Murry 180). She continues with her brazen intro by informing him that she will lower herself to his “supposed proof” (Murray 181) of Biblical understanding to destroy any religious argument he believes in. Murray begins by arguing that Eve was superior to Adam for the same reason that many people condemn her: for giving in. Murray explains that Eve’s bite of the apple was “merely by a desire of adorning her mind; a laudable ambition fired her soul, a thirst for knowledge impelled the predilection so fatal in its consequences” (Murray 181). Murray applauds Eve for her want of knowledge, and then belittles Adam. Adam saw the effects of Eve’s action (which she committed without knowing the consequences) and followed her folly anyway. Eve ate the apple for knowledge; Adam ate the apple for Eve. Murray summarizes by saying “What mighty cause impelled him to sacrifice myriads of being yet unborn…than a bare pusillanimous attachment to a woman (Murray 181-182). Eve is not at fault for original sin because she simply wanted knowledge and did not understand effects of her actions. Adam, on the other hand, knew what would happen and followed her anyway; thus knowingly condemning his future generations.
In conclusion, Murray’s 1790 essay in both an example of the fight for women’s rights and the self-imposed imitations created as the product of the time hence they came.

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

while she create societal based limits, Murray was a step forward for women.