Inequality In Mary Leapor's An Essay For Women

Resistance against women has and always will be a classic human conflict. Throughout multiple decades both the standard for image and responsibility of women have altered. But, one thing has remained stagnant; the inequality in the societal hierarchy. Focusing on the eighteenth century, many women; against social norms, have learned to express their frustration through both poetry and written essays. One of the most significant essays ever written expressing this injustice is “An Essay for Women” written by Mary Leapor. This stepping stone for equality amongst all genders, expresses the discernment of women based exclusively on their physical manifestation. This inequality towards women is reflective on the superior mentality of the societal system. In other words, women shall not be faulted for the injustice they face because the social system in which controls the majority mentality, allows this …show more content…
Slavery quickly appeared its ill-gotten face, by destroying the lives of so many African Americans. In William Cowper’s “The Negro’s Complaint”, a wretched and repulsive image is portrayed to its readers, in order to convey the true destruction slavery imposed onto so many families during this time. Like women, these slaves did not understand what issued the right to the white men to coerce them into a life of enslavement and servitude. This shared mentality between women and slaves fundamentally demonstrates the equality in which both groups faced during the eighteenth century. Mary Leapor states, “Unhappy woman’s but a slave at large”, essentially conveying that the frame of mind in which women and slaves maintained, could essentially correspond with one another. Women who were unhappy due to the standards that were held for them, and slaves who were forced to work against their will, share one thing in common; oppression of the common eighteenth century