Essay
Woman in the Nineteenth Century
Margaret Fuller · 1845
Synopsis
The author argues that there is neither a purely masculine man nor a purely feminine woman, and that every path should be opened to women as freely as to men. She reviews female figures from mythology, history and books, from Eurydice to Minerva, distinguishes four forms of marriage, compares the condition of women with that of slaves, criticises a girls' education modelled on that of boys, and asks that all occupations be open to them, including that of ship's captain.
Context
The text develops an article that had appeared two years earlier in the Transcendentalist review its author had edited, and extends the conversations she held before an audience of women. One sentence, which opened command of ships to women, was mocked by the press. The author was then preparing a history of the Roman republic of 1849 and of the Italian revolution, written on the spot: the manuscript disappeared with her in the shipwreck of 1850.
Who it is for
An essay of about two hundred pages, one of the first American feminist texts, which the context of transcendentalism helps to illuminate.
Prizes and reception
First printing sold out in one to two weeks depending on the source, reissued in 1855 by the author's brother, and reputed to be a founding text of American feminism.