The Female Reader

Lucretia Mott ...was one assertion Lucretia Mott used to counter the Reverend Henry Grew's arguments that the Bible proved men were naturally superior to women at the National Women's Rights convention in 1854. Mott was fond of using scripture as a means of exemplifying women's equality in rights to man, as is discussed in the following essay, published on this day in 1849. Reading time: 30 minutes Discourse On Woman December 17, 1849 There is nothing of greater importance to the well-being of society at large —of man as well as woman—than the true and proper position of woman. Much has been said, from time to time, upon this subject. It has been a theme for ridicule, for satire and sarcasm. We might look for this from the ignorant and vulgar; but from the intelligent and refined we have a right to expect that such weapons shall not be resorted to,—that gross comparisons and vulgar epithets shall not be applied, so as to place woman, in a point of view, ridicu...

Elizabeth Cady Stanton In 1895, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a committee of 26 women published The Women's Bible which challenged the traditional position of religious orthodoxy that woman should be subservient to man. Through this controversial publication, these brave women sought to bring attention to the small fraction of the Bible which discussed women, and demonstrate that it was not divine will that humiliated women, but human desire for domination. The Woman's Bible  focuses on the chapters which discuss women, and adds commentary and critical observations about the place of woman to these sections, Below is Stanton's introduction to The Women's Bible  in which she sets out her intentions and principles of the project. Reading time: 12 minutes The Women's Bible Introduction FROM the inauguration of the movement for woman's emancipation the Bible has been used to hold her in the "divinely ordained sphere," prescribed in the Old and N...