Ulises Medrano
GHS 362
Dr .Mark Meirowitz

Women and the Revolutionary Era

The Revolutionary rethinking of the rules for society also led to some reconsideration of the relationship between men and women. At this time, women were widely considered to be inferior to men, a status that was especially clear in the lack of legal rights for married women. The law did not recognize wives' independence in economic, political, or civic matters in Anglo-American society of the eighteenth century. Even future first ladies had relatively little clout. After the death of her husband, Dolley T Madison, had to fight her deceased spouse's heirs for control of his estate. And Abigail Adams, an early advocate of women's rights, could only encourage her husband John, to remember the ladies, when drawing up a new federal government. She could not participate in the creation of this government. The Revolution increased people's attention to political matters and made issues of liberty and equality especially important. Judith S Murray wrote the most systematic expression of a feminist position in this period in 1779. Her essay on The Equality of the Sexes challenged the view that men had greater intellectual capacities than women. Instead she argued that whatever differences existed between the intelligence of men and women were the result of prejudice and discrimination that prevented women from sharing the full range of male privilege and experience. Murray championed the view that the Order of Nature, demanded full equality between the sexes, but that male domination corrupted this principle. Like many other of the most radical voices of the Revolutionary Era, Murray's support for gender equality was largely met by shock and disapproval. Revolutionary and Early National America remained a place of male privilege. Nevertheless the understanding of the proper relationships among men, women, and the public