Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman

by Sarah Moore Grimké

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Genres: Feminism, History, Nonfiction, Womens, Philosophy

140 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1970

About the author

Abolitionist writer. Sister of Angelina Emily Grimké.

Reviews

[Tonya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a collection of letters written in 1837 by Sarah Moore Grimke. (She is the main character in the historical novel The Invention of Wings.) She spends a lot of time analyzing the Bible and its instruction to women. The reformation allowed common man personal access to scriptures, and she advocates that women should also look to the scriptures and to God for personal instruction, rather than relying on men (your pastor) to interpret it for you. "I believe it to be the solemn duty of every individual to search the Scriptures for themselves, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, and not be governed by the views of any man, or set of men." Considering the time she lived, her thinking was advanced, but I found it very interesting to read her views in the context of our current time as well. "It is impossible that we should fulfill our duties, unless we comprehend them; or live up to our privileges, unless we know what they are."

I also really liked the letter she wrote about how women act and dress and how it affects how we are viewed and our status. "They know that so long as we submit to being dressed like dolls, we never can rise to the stations of duty and usefulness from which they desire to exclude us.....To me it appears beneath the dignity of woman to bedeck herself in gewgaws and trinkets, in ribbons and laces, to gratify the eye of man. I believe, furthermore, that we owe a solemn duty to the poor."

[Morris Nelms · Rating 4 out of 5]

She should be read by everyone. Her reasoning is excellent. I would hate to have the job of refuting her in a debate. Apparently she was thought the best legal mind in a family of lawyers, but because she was a woman, she was not allowed to follow that path. One of her first legal acts was to draft a document freeing the slave she had been given as a present on her 10th or 11th birthday. When she was not allowed to free her, she taught her to read and write. That got her in even more hot water. A remarkable woman who was burned in effigy in her home town of Charleston after she became a vocal and famous abolitionist. She was one of the first, if not the first, female abolitionists in the US and she was also probably the first feminist in the US (1830s). She split the abolitionist movement with the logical insistence that equal rights for slaves should also mean equal rights for women. Her signature motto is "Whatever is morally acceptable for a man to do, the same is morally acceptable for a woman to do." That pithy remark takes care of a lot of past and current controversies in 19 words!
Reading her letters is reminiscent of Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman, another fundamentally important document. Don't miss this one.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/o...



Letters on the Equality of the Sexes
Addressed to Mary S. Parker, President of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society
Sarah Grimké, 1837
Letter I: The Original Equality of Woman
Letter II: Woman Subject Only To God
Letter III: The Pastoral Letter of the General Association of Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts
Letter IV: Social Intercourse of the Sexes
Letter V: Condition in Asia and Africa
Letter VI: Women in Asia and Africa
Letter VII: Condition in Some Parts of Europe and America
Letter VIII: On the Condition of Women in the United States
Letter IX: Heroism of Women -- Women in Authority
Letter X: Intellect of Woman
Letter XI: Dress of Women
Letter XII: Legal Disabilities of Women
Letter XIII: Relation of Husband and Wife
Letter XIV: Ministry of Women
Letter XV: Man Equally Guilty with Woman in the Fall
Letter I: The Original Equality of Woman
Amesbury, 7th Mo., 11th, 1837
My Dear Friend,
In attempting to comply with thy request to give my views on the Province of Woman, I feel that I am
venturing on nearly untrodden ground, and that I shall advance arguments in opposition to a corrupt public
opinion, and to the perverted interpretation of Holy Writ, which has so universally obtained. But I am in
search of truth; and no obstacle shall prevent my prosecuting that search, because I believe the welfare of

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

really interesting, great primary source for American first wave feminist literature…..

[nina krejci · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Can any American woman look at these scenes of shocking licentiousness and cruelty, and fold her hands in apathy, and say, ‘I have nothing to do with slavery?’ She cannot and be guiltless.”

“In most families, it is considered a matter of far more consequence to call a girl off from making a pie, or a pudding, than to interrupt her whilst engaged in her studies. This mode of training necessarily exalts, in their view, the animal above the intellectual and spiritual nature, and teaches women to regard themselves as a kind of machinery, necessary to keep the domestic engine in order, but of little value as the intelligent companions of men.”

“Our southern cities are wheeled beneath a tide of pollution; the virtue of female slaves is wholly at the mercy of irresponsible tyrants, and women are bought and sold in our slave markets, to gratify the brute lust of those who bear the name of Christian."

“Our brethren may reject my doctrine, because it runs counter to common opinions, and because it wounds their pride; but I believe they would be "partakers of the benefit" resulting from the Equality of the Sexes, and would find that woman, as their equal, was unspeakably more valuable than woman as their inferior, both as a moral and an intellectual being. Thine in the bonds of womanhood."

[Sarah (Gutierrez) Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful example of a morally and religiously serious form of feminism. Some chapters more than others were reflective of Quaker commitments, with which a Catholic like myself would take issue, but the emphasis on the idea that real female equality requires virtue and moral responsibility for oneself and one's neighbors, is the real value of this book

[mika · Rating 5 out of 5]

sarah grimké the woman that you are!!!

[Candi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was much more interesting than I expected. I read the version on Project Gutenberg (not sure how much might differ between transcribers. The author uses the Bible to prove that God did not place male above females and that patriarchy was developed by man. This is a wonderful Christian and Jewish argument for the equality of the sexes.

[April Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is known as the first book about feminism by an American woman. Great read!