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Rayanna Riecss
Professor Cato
AML 3031
13 October 2015
Judith Sargent Murray, Fanny Fern, and the Arguments for Gender Equality
In order to promote womens equality, should a writer take the defensive or the offensive?
In choosing the former, they would follow in late eighteenth century writer Judith Sargent
Murrays footsteps and take issue with statements made in support of womens inferiority. Like
Murray, they would choose to appeal to masculine notions of logic and reason. The latter
choice would result in the writer channeling their rage into a derisive social commentary in the
vain of nineteenth century writer Sarah Willis Parton, better known as Fanny Fern. Only
separated by a few decades, these two popular writers shared similar goals with regard to
changing societys perception of women, but they utilized different strategies in order to spread
their positions on womens supposed inferiority. Murrays defenses of the female sex in her essay
On the Equality of the Sexes, are highly structured and logical while Ferns seem to rely on
personal attacks and rants. However, to dismiss Ferns columns on that basis would indicate a
failure to see them as passionate arguments on the behalf of an oppressed group.
In her landmark essay On the Equality of the Sexes, Murray seeks to dispel the idea of
womens inferiority to men. She questions why so many presume that this inequality is just how
Mother Nature intended: Is it upon mature consideration we adopt the idea that nature is thus
partial in her distributions? Is it indeed a fact that she hath yielded to one half of the human
species so unquestionable a mental superiority? (Murray 740). She wonders why her sexs

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perceived deficit has not been tested in a more logical manner. If society is to make a claim that
privileges one sex over the other, should it not at least cover all its bases?
Next Murray transitions her argument by praising womens creativity and imagination in
the ways of fashion and gossip. She suggests that society should not dismiss womens inventions
because they deem them to be trivial. She acknowledges that these inventions would not
normally be considered extreme mental workouts, but she asks her readers to discern the variety
of fashions (here I bar the contemptuous smile) which distinguish and adorn the female world;
how continually are they changing, insomuch that they almost render the wise mans assertion
problematical, and we are ready to say, there is something new under the sun (740-741). Murray
desires that her audience acknowledge that womens innovation in fashion is not something to be
ignored. She continues by asserting that this open-mindedness should also be applied to womens
affinity for gossip and slander. Lies may be hurtful, but Murray insists that one must give women
credit by inquiring, What a formidable story can we in a moment fabricate merely from the
force of a prolific imagination? How many reputations in the fertile brain of a female have been
utterly despoiled? (741). She maintains that though some may see these shallow hobbies as
evidence of womens inferiority because they lack urgency or a traditional sense of importance,
these feminine pastimes actually showcase a great deal of creative intellect and are certainly an
indication of the females potential.
After presenting her evidence in support of womens intellect, Murray turns toward her
sexs confinement to the domestic sphere and inquiries how the needle and the kitchen [can be]
sufficient to employ the operations of a soul thus organized? (741). She argues the female mind
certainly has a capacity for more stimulating work than what they have so far been given.
Murray stresses that womens inequality stems from their lack of educational opportunities. It is

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not fair for men to assume that their ignorance in more significant matters is a result of biological
inferiority given that women have excelled in the realm to which they have been relegated. She
targets the different ways boys and girls are raised, asserting that one is taught to aspire and the
other is early confined and limited. As the years increase the sister must be holly domesticated,
while the brother is led by the hand through all the flowery paths of science (741). Here Murray
critiques the patriarchal system that privileges the cultivation of male minds over female minds.
With proper nourishment, women would undoubtedly be able to smash all notions of their
secondary status.
According to Murray, her sexs desire for intellectual growth began in the original
garden, Eden. As a complement to her essay, she included a letter she wrote to her friend in
which she discussed Eves true motive: It doth not appear that she was governed by any one
sensual appetite, but merely a desire for adorning her mind. A laudable ambition fired her soul
and a thirst for knowledge impelled the predilection so fatal in its consequences (746). Murray
uses this analysis to declare that this biblical moment should not be interpreted as a failing of
Eve, but rather evidence of females yearning for enlightenment, which has been present since
the beginning of humanity. Instead this moment has wrongly been used to justify societys
portrait of the ignorant and deceitful woman.
While Murray looked to banish the negative image of women put upon by society, Fern
went on the offensive and sought to criticize men and the system that privileged them. During
her career as a writer, she wrote humorous and often scathing columns in the newspaper. In
Aunt Hetty on Matrimony, the character delivers a breathless rant against marriage, persuading
the reader that the ideal union that women have been brought up to seek and focus solely on is an
extreme falsehood; the honey-moon is as short-lived as a lucifer-match; after that you may wear

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your wedding-dress at breakfast, and your night-cap to meeting, and your husband wouldnt
know it (Fern 907). Like Murray, she understands that society has fated women to spend their
lives in domestic hell. However, Ferns approach to this critique is much more acerbic. She
implores the audience to feel all the anger and anguish of her situation. Aunt Hetty protests that
the wifes role is thankless, claiming that you may scrimp and save, and twist and turn, and dig
and delve, and economize and die; and your husband will marry again, and take what you have
saved to dress his second wife with; and shell take your portrait for a fire-board! (908). In
contrast to Murray, Fern relies heavily on emotional rather than logical appeals. Is her reasoning
without merit or is she merely playing by her own rules rather than the ones set out by a society
that equates rational thinking with masculinity?
Although Fern displayed a venomous tone and an aptitude for searing social commentary
through her popular columns, she could not escape from sexist criticisms that were indicative of
the time. After an unfavorable book review, she fired back by penning Male Criticism on
Ladies Books in which she questioned what made a novel feminine and theorized the reasons
behind her reviewers hostility toward women (912). The critic had chalked up all feminine
novels as being nothing more than sentimental fluff concerning the domestic sphere. He claimed
that it would not be wise to read a work by a female writer with the assumption that her pages
would contain a different result. Fern found this reasoning flawed, citing the frequent themes of
courtship and matrimony within the works of celebrated authors Charles Dickens, William
Makepeace Thackeray and Edward Bulwer-Lytton. After seeing such outright sexism, she
decreed the writer is some unhappy man, who has come up without the refining influence of
mother, or sister, or reputable friends and that his poor attitude may just be a result of being
refused by some pretty girl, as he deserved to be, (narrow-minded old vinegar crust!) or

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snubbed by some lady authoress (912). In contrast to Murray, Fern attacks her critics head on.
They may seem uncalled for, but in her own way, she is critiquing a system that allows men
fancy themselves as better than women and dictates womens subservience.
In Fresh Leaves, by Fanny Fern Fern challenges this notion again by crafting a satirical
review of her latest composition. In the review, she takes on the persona of one of the many
misogynistic critics she has encountered throughout her career, and she states in her parody that
these critics only approve of women who stay confined to the place that Heaven has assigned
them, and keep it who do not waste floods of ink and paper, brow-beating men and stirring up
silly women (913). Throughout the review, Fern details how men believe that they can so easily
silence women by insulting their appearance and refusing to give legitimacy to their claims
because they do not conform to how a woman is supposed to act. Unlike Murrays work, Fern
attempts through humor to make the reader acknowledge a double-standard. At times, it seems
like she borders on ridiculousness, but as in this parody and many of her other works, Ferns
sharp, humorous words contain much truth. She constructs them in a way that stands out, so her
readers will pay attention.
Both Murray and Fern succeeded in obtaining loyal readers by creating thoughtprovoking material with the crucial goal of gender equality. Their differing strategies raise
questions about the methods we utilize to get our points across. Should we limit blistering
comedy and criticisms to a certain time and place? Is it always better to construct a logical
argument and take the defensive? Is the goal to gain more brains or hearts? These may be
questions of opinion, but ultimately to eliminate the contributions of Fern would surely be a
mistake. The celebrated and deserving Murray argues elegantly for gender equality, but it is Fern
with her vitriolic tone and quick-wit that leaves a more lasting impression.

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Works Cited
Fern, Fanny. "Aunt Hetty on Marriage." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina
Baym and Ed. Robert S. Levine. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York: Norton, 2012. 907-08. Print.
Fern, Fanny. "Fresh Leaves by Fanny Fern." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed.
Nina Baym and Ed. Robert S. Levine. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York: Norton, 2012. 913-14.
Print.
Fern, Fanny. "Male Criticism on Ladies' Books." The Norton Anthology of American Literature.
Ed. Nina Baym and Ed. Robert S. Levine. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York: Norton, 2012. 912.
Print.
Murray, Judith Sargent. "On the Equality of the Sexes." The Norton Anthology of American
Literature. Ed. Nina Baym and Ed. Robert S. Levine. 8th ed. Vol. A. New York: Norton,
2012. 738-47. Print.