From reading the various articles from the “Making of America” database, it seems that the feelings on the issue of equality of women from the time periods of 1830 – 1860 were mixed. While some people would argue for the dignity and respectfulness of women, they did not argue for the legal rights of women, and vice versa. The views seemed to be split in half (even by the same person) as they were in the article ‘Woman Physiologically Considered, Review’ written by Alexander Walker. This article found in the database is the perfect article to use to sum up the ideas of the rest of the articles found about the equality of women.
Alexander Walker, who wrote the article ‘Woman Physiologically Considered, Review’ in the Southern Quarterly Review has some mixed ideas about the equality of women. While he argues for the natural rights of women beings by saying “…they are reasonable and intelligent beings…”1, he does not argue for the legal rights of women. He states of their rights, “the proper place for women is at home … Wherever a married woman has a separate and individual reputation, a position, a power, independent of her husband, she nurtures misery for herself and injury to the community”2. He later goes on to say that women can not be a chief of a nation because “nature abhors it”3. When writing about women being taxed and punished for crimes like men he states that women could be taxed because it was “compensation to the public for the service rendered” and that they could be punished for crimes like men because “they can perfectly comprehend the law, and understand what a violation of it is”4. It is evident that he did not want women advancing in society by saying “away with the absurd folly of women-governors, women-legislators, women-judges, women-lawyers, women-generals, women-police…”5. Although he said women are intelligent and as smart as men, he clearly did not want women advancing in society as some of the other authors who had written articles about equality of women that were found in the database “Making of America”.
Obviously, the ideas of equality for women were mixed, even by the same person, in this case, Alexander Walker. While some people argued that women were just as smart as men and respected them as human beings, they did not argue for their legal rights (and vice versa). So it seems that some people did not want women to advance in society while others did. The views on the rights of women from the time period of 1830 – 1860 were mixed.
1 Southern Quarterly Review, October, 1842 p. 299
2 Southern Quarterly Review, October, 1842 p. 297
3 Southern Quarterly Review, October, 1842 p. 297
4 Southern Quarterly Review, October, 1842 p. 299
5 Southern Quarterly Review, October, 1842 p. 299