Judith Sargent Murray Equality

The primary source titled “On the Equality of the Sexes” was published by Judith Sargent Murray in 1790. She published her work in two parts. The first publication was written in the form of a poem followed by the second publication which was written as an essay. It is very interesting how Murray sarcastically titles her essay about the equality of the sexes when the majority of her essay explains the inequality between the sexes. However, in her essay, she introduces the ideas of intellectual and spiritual equality between men and women. Her assumptions on the equality of men and women relate to the powers that humans are given which refer to imagination, reason, memory and judgement. In the beginning of her essay, she indicated that minds are not alike, and that comes …show more content…
The main theme of this essay focuses on the belief that the inequality of men and women is solely based upon the inequality experience of education between the sexes. With that being said, women were not given the capability of exploring the outside world of society. According to Give Me Liberty, the book states “Inequality had been fundamental to the colonial social order; the Revolution challenged it in many ways” (Foner 169) . During the time period her essay was published, freedom was in relation to the idea of equality. Furthermore, Murray elaborates on the belief that feminism played a huge role during the time period of Enlightenment. Murray believed women equally had the same right as men, however; it is evident that women were not intellectually given the same respect as men on the ideas of reason and education.
In her essay, Murray argues for the four intellectual powers of women during this time period. The first argument Murray explains is the power of a women’s imagination. She believes a women’s imagination is at a higher status than a man’s imagination. To back up her idea,