Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1873-07-04
For the VERMONT FARMER
WOMAN'S RIGHTS.


Woman tho superior Of man Can / be-
licve what read and yet 1 have read it
with my own eyes. With deep wonder
saw in the VERMONT FARMER,--a paper re.
markablo for truth and judgmont,--I saw in
that paper the following lincs:--
From tho highest TO the lowest
This tho great Creators plan
stood tho proud and coming woman
ona higher plano than man."
Now what is this world coming tot Ev-
erything seems to be getting out Of place.
But let us read what follows these wonderful
lines; oh, it is an equally bold denial of tho
superiority of woman, with tho argument
taken from tho Bible itself Woman is q
rib taken from the side of man; therefore
she is neither the inferior nor the superior Of
man, but his equal. A good argument, we
cannot deny VIC accept it fully and heartily.
Now am not going to discuss this deli.
cate matter at all | am not going to try to
determine which has the best intellect, the
incest Judgment, Or tho strongest reason, as
l have seen it cloquently discussed, but as
regards her social position in this revolving
spkere, think she is greatly the inferior
of man, even in this " free and enlightened"
nation | will not dwell at present upon the
wrongs of our unfortunate sisters who inhab-
it regions known as " Greonlands icy noun
tains and t Indias coral strand" but just
look at our condition-we, the women of
these glorious United States.
Now have before my mind lady of
rare talent, accomplished, and in every way
fitted to fill position of usefulness and hon
or. but who is compelled by this law Of Gus
tom Il deny its being law Of Cody to occu-
py only just such prescribed position, call
ed by that very indefinite term, "woman's
sphere" Now | have a great respect for
woman's sphere, this making home a para
disc, and so on-when you have home
but there is class Of females who have no
homes, who by some accident are thrown up
on the world to struggle with poverty, and
at this thought there arises before me q
countless train Of widows and orphans, with
sad objected faces, wearing out their lives
for the miserable pittance they can earn
with many hours Of toll women Of refine
ment AMI genius, to whom tho comforts Of
this world are forever denied; with ardent
desire for learning, but too poor ever to graft
fly that desire; for what employment offers to
women its two and three dollars day, which
our brothers earn with ease, working their
way through college, and from thence to po-
sitions Of honor and usefulness? The field
Of literature and art is open to them. They
may become doctors, lawyers, ministers
there are q thousand incentives to their am
bition they can as it were carve out their
own destiny by their own strong wills. But
for their sister who may have talents supc-
rior to theirs, what docs tho world offer to
her /? what motive for her ambition? Sheis
bound just as strongly by the law Of custom
as the Eastern woman is to her harem and
her false notions of propricty; she must
fulfil only such an end she must do only
such n work
Now do not undervaluo the sphere OF
woman as wife and mother, on the contrary
think 1t the noblcst work u woman can do
to train her children and make her home
happy, and consider her very culpablc if she
has this work and does not do it. But /
contend it is not her only sphere. Why
should she not use the gifts Of Providence?
Why should she not fill tho place God and
Nature designed she should fill If she
has tasto for some pursuit why should she
not follow it2 Why seek to limit the sphcro
of woman? | consider the sphere of wo.
man TO lie in filling that place for which she
is most adapted, and it is perversion of tho
gifts of God if she does not accept that
place, whether it be in the world OF art and
neutrality-suspicious. she can do with the
most honor and profit X. w.
June, 1873.