Abigail Adams Remember The Ladies Analysis

Women have always been considered inferior to their male counterparts. Rather it was religious, political, or social women were always looked at as property and under the control of their fathers, brothers or husbands. For women, wifehood and motherhood was their main profession, that is until the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century when women began fighting for the reevaluation of traditional views on their roles in society. During these centuries the enlightenment, revolutions, and wars for independence were taking place. Women then had to step up due to the absence of men. Some revolutionary women began to see that women should be equal to men and the only way for this to be done through the education of women and women not being …show more content…
At the time that John was serving Abigail was tending to the family farm (EWC 529). In Abigail’s letter to John she is longing that he would “Remember the Ladies” (EWC 529). By her asking him not to forget about the women in society she was asking him to to think about how society treated women in the past and to try and change the view point. She did not want her husband to give males absolute power over women like they always have. Abigail states that to men women are “vassals of your sex” (Abigail to John, EWC 529) and that is how society views them. She acknowledges this to let her husband know that she is aware that women are seen as the secondary sex. Through the dialect of the letter it can be inferred that Abigail does not like the mis-opportunity of asserting herself when it comes to her own rights. Abigail is warning John that if women continue to be overlooked they will eventually get fed up with being voiceless and rebel (EWC 529). Abigail also tells John “your sex is naturally tyrannical” meaning that mean could and would naturally oppress others. She was pointing out the hypocrisy behind the wars, if men could oppress the rights of half the population. Overall Abigail lets her husband know that women were tired of being just housewives and …show more content…
France limitation on citizenship excluded females, it was only a liberty for men. This limited citizenship was seen in the Deceleration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. The term “citizen” was used but it still excluded women. Women went unmentioned in the document, it never clearly stated “women”, instead it continually used “citizen”. A revolutionary woman. Olympe de Gouges, was agitated by women not having equal rights, so she responded to the Declaration with a made up version that included women, Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen. In this document de Gouges starts off by saying men are unjust (EWC 546). She asked man to observe the animals in the natural world and see how the sexes interact, for man to see that they are "in harmonious togetherness" (EWC 546). She is telling man that in the elements of science there is equality, saying that man should learn from science and animals. de Gouges calls man ignorant because he wants to have absolute command. Since de Gouges was disturbed with the terms of the document she rewrote them, making them fair and just in her opinion. de Gouges document echoed the language of the original document, but afforded women more rights and freedom. By her rewriting the document she advised what was written and placing feminine pronouns to objectify the rights. de Gouges gave women fair treatment in terms of equality,