Summary Of The Speech Of Polly Baker

The definition of feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes. Benjamin Franklin wrote a story showing how rough a woman in the 1700s had during that period. Franklin wanted the people to know how there was a lack of women’s rights and how poorly the women were treated. Women were punished and heavily fined for having children out of wedlock and frowned upon when raising their children by themselves. The Speech of Polly Baker was a piece of feminist writing because it showed the hypocrisy of the patriarchy, the lack of women’s rights and even the strength of women despite of how society treated them. It paved the way for the society to believe in women’s rights.
The hypocrisy of the patriarchy during …show more content…
Of course, they declined because of her situation. Polly needed help to pay for the harsh fines that they gave her. The government at that time didn’t believe in women’s rights and thought it was unnecessary to take care of the women and thought that they can take care of themselves. Women’s jobs at that time were to find a man, get married, have children with them and stay at home taking care of them. Anything outside of that would be looked down upon. The lack of women’s rights was incredible. Even though it was highly frowned upon in the society of that time, Polly believed that God was happy with her populating his world. She stood up for women when she explained that having children is only the women’s duty and responsibility, “Tis the duty of the first and great command of nature and of Nature’s God, increase and multiply (244)” and that it is the women’s human nature to populate the world, and not a punishment at all. Without the increase and multiply, no one would be alive. Constantly being punished for this could make women rethink about having children, which is not right at all. Also, the court saw that she was not married and ordered for one of the judges to marry her. This is in no way fair to Polly Baker because she did not know this man at all. Marrying a stranger was not going to make her problems go …show more content…
In that period, being a woman was hard. Polly Baker was raising her children by herself and with no help from the government. Also, having a child in that period was very risky. There was always a high chance of the mother dying during childbirth, and Polly was a risk of death five times. Part of Polly’s strength is shown when she stands up for herself in front of the court, even when she was publicly humiliated. She ends her speech with a thought, “instead of a whipping, to have a statue erected to my memory (244),” because she hasn’t committed a crime. Franklin wanted the public to know that what she was doing was a good thing, and the government is wrongfully punishing her. Hopefully her actions would open the eyes to the government and the society, so they can see that women need stronger and better rights. Also, the men should take responsibility of their actions too and the public should realize