Feminism 101

For someone with some time on her hands...

To distract myself from getting too down about my current state of (f)unemployment, I am taking a Contemporary Feminist Thought course at Penn. I thought I might share some of the readings with whoever may be interested in revisiting some classic feminist writings. Later in the semester the readings will be more contemporary, but for now we're starting with the first wave.

My first assignment was to read Chapter II of Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 A Vindication of the Rights of Women, which argues that while ladies are just as smart and capable as men, they often appear to be stupid because they're uneducated and socialized for a life of vanity and caprice. From what I have read, she appears to address rich people exclusively, and her attitude towards the women that she writes about is overly patronizing, but I have to appreciate her good efforts. Particularly interesting is the conflict between the puritanical ideals she espouses in her writing with the tumult of her personal love life.

We also read the Declaration of Sentiments, drafted and signed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other prominent feminists in 1848 at the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY. The convention was organized after Ms. Stanton and other women were turned away from a big Abolitionist meeting in England, which apparently only admitted men. Frederick Douglass, ever the gentle man, stood up for the ladies, but to no avail- they were not allowed in! The Declaration, miming the Declaration of Independence, asserts the rights of women in participation in the political, religious, civil, and social arenas, and is really gutsy for something called the Declaration of Sentiments...why did they call it that, anyhow?

Also, we read Sojourner Truth's amazing Ain't I a Woman speech. Ms. Truth, a freed slave, just walked unannounced into a church full of white Abolitionists and told 'em what's what, and then gave the speech again at a Women's Convention in 1851.

Enjoy!!