On the Equality of Sexes, essay summary

This essay is an excerpt from an article ‘On the Equality of the Sexes’ published in Massachusetts Magazine in 1790. Judith Sargent Murray, the author, is a feminist writer who strived for the right and recognition of women from the society of her period.

Throughout the essay, the author compares woman’s and man’s ability in imagination, reason, memory, and judgment. She believed that women are surrendered to use their imagination. If fact, if they are allowed time to imagine, they are able to invent wonderful things and write good books. However, this ‘fertile brain of a female’ has been ‘despoiled’, that is, it has been damaged because of the society’s confinement. Women have been supposed to stick with ‘needle and kitchen’ which wastes the intelligent parts of women. Anyway, it’s said that women are lacking of the ability in reason. In fact, they are denied the opportunity to reason. Talking about the ability to memorize, the author prefers the idea that both sexes have equal ability. What is more, people, regardless of sex, by nature are equal in terms of every faculty, but what makes the difference is the after-birth’s education which is essentially influential on their abilities. Girls and boys are exposed to ‘contrary modes of education’; boys are taught to be ambitious and seek to attain goals; girls, on the other hand, are inculcated with domestic work. To sum up these ideas, the author takes the view that women’s and men’s minds are by nature equal but it’s custom that makes up the gap.

The author gave an example that if an uneducated girl marries an educated man, she will experience a feeling of ashamed and inferior which fills her with deep sadness. If, in another case, she marries an uneducated man the same to her, she will be even worse-off. Therefore, proper education for women is vitally important for the determination of their own fate and the formation of a happy family. With good education, they are able to make good judgments and choose a good partner for life. Also, there is a possibility that women will become an expert in what she learns. Besides, the author raised a question that 'Will the achievments of women take the place of their domestic works?' The answer was that women could do both things well if they are willing to.

So far, many females, as males, have used their powers of nature to win recognition and applause. There are many ‘robust masculine’ women and mentally weak men. Thus, women are persuaded to use their mind power as a kind of strength to be equal to man’s physical strength. Finally, the author appeals to the readers that we must struggle with the preoccupation of the society to gain the advantages stated above.

The author intends to make us, especially all women, regardless of space and time, beware of and revolutionize these discriminations for the sake of themselves and other women on the purpose of gaining recognition and respect. Personally, I totally agree with the author’s viewpoint that women should not be confined to domestic work; rather, they should be given chance to absorb knowledge from school and perform professional jobs. But what is important is the women themselves who must have ambitions and strong determination to tackle with the societal burdens for real equality.

This essay gives us, as a reader, the idea of equality of sexes. We learn about the lower value and role of women in the author’s time and that women were not given equal right and opportunity for education and work as men were. In this case, women were always inferior to men in terms of not only physical strength but also intelligence. We also realize that many women have been struggling with the social burdens so that women today receive rights and better opportunities for edcuation and jobs in the society. As a new generation, we should also continue to promote women's right and value so that men and women are equally treated.