Woman and Her Wishes - 1853

For the great grievance alleged by all women who make complaint of grievances is this: that all these details are but part of a system, which lies at the basis of all our organizations, assumes at the outset the inferiority of woman, merges every married woman in her husband, and imposes upon every single woman the injustice of taxation without representation; -- symbolic of the general fact, that she incurs most of the responsibilities of freedom, without its rights.

"Husband and wife (says Blackstone) are held to be one person in law, so that the very being and existence of the woman is suspended during the coverture, or entirely merged and incorporated in that of the husband."

Nor is this to be an empty claim. The husband has the right (says another legal authority) of imposing such corporeal restraints as he may deem necessary for securing to himself the fulfilment of the obligations imposed on the wife. He may, in the plenitude of his power, adopt every act of physical coercion which does not endanger the life or health of the wife."

"In short, (says Judge Hurlbut,) a woman is courted and wedded as an angel, and yet denied the dignity of a rational and moral being ever after."

The protest of women, therefore, is not against a special abuse, but against a whole system of injustice; and the peculiar importance of political suffrage to woman is only because it seems to be the most available point to begin with. Once recognize the political equality of the sexes, and all the questions of legal, social, educational and professional equality will soon settle themselves.