Women Write on Women's Rights Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jane Anger

Very little information exists on this pioneering author, other than she wrote the pamphlet 'Jane Anger Her Protection for Women', published in 1589 in response to the misogynistic text 'Thomas Orwin Book His Surfeit in Love'. Rarely in 16th century did women write publicly on non-religious or non-domestic themes, much less question male supremacy. Jane Anger's name, which may have been a pseudonym, was apt, because she voiced a fervor if not a rage against patriarchy, making her possibly the first female polemicist, if not the first feminist, in English literature. (A polemicist is a writer skilled in disputation or argument, usually attacking or defending a doctrine or practice). Educational opportunities were very limited for women in the early modern period, making the quality of the pamphlet all the more remarkable.

"To all Women in generall," begins the 'Protection for Women', "and gentle Reader whatsoever. FIE on the falshoode of men, whose minds goe oft a madding, & whose tongues can not so soone bee wagging, but straight they fal a railing. Was there ever any so abused, so slaundered, so railed upon, or so wickedly handeled undeservedly, as are we women?"

Answer: Abigail Adams

In May 1776, Abigail complained, "...whilst you are proclaiming peace and good will to Men, Emancipating all Nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over Wives. But you must remember," she warned, "that Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken." Her husband Adams was not supportive and actually argued in another letter to James Sullivan that if they let men without property vote, they would have to let women and children vote.

Answer: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Some argued that education would make more women masculine, to which Mary Wollstonecraft replied:
"If by this appellation men mean to inveigh against their ardour in hunting, shooting, and gaming, I shall most cordially join in the cry; but if it be against the imitation of manly virtues, or, more properly speaking, the attainment of those talents and virtues, the exercise of which ennobles the human character, and which raise females in the scale of animal being, when they are comprehensively termed mankind;- all those who view them with a philosophic eye must, I should think, wish with me, that they may every day grow more and more masculine."

Because of her scandalous conduct, Wollstonecraft was not looked upon with favor in her time, and was often left out of early histories of feminism.

Wollstonecraft not only wrote 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman', but she was a literary creator of another sort. She was the mother of Mary Shelley, who wrote 'Frankenstein', the first modern science fiction novel.

Answer: Harriet Martineau

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) translated Auguste Comte, the French philosopher who founded sociology as well as positivism, an approach to the study of society using such scientific evidence as experiments, statistics, and qualitative methods. Martineau also wrote on economics and sought to popularize laissez-faire capitalism (i.e. largely unregulated).

Like Mary Wollstonecraft, Martineau deplored the state of education for women. In 'Society in America' (1937), Martineau wrote: "The intellect of women is confined by an unjustifiable restriction of... education.... As women have none of the objects in life for which an enlarged education is considered requisite, the education is not given.... The choice is to either be 'ill-educated, passive, and subservient, or well-educated, vigorous, and free only upon sufferance."

Answer: Frances Willard, Woman's Christian Temperance Movement

Hope you got the hints from the capitalized "PURITY" and the mention of "Prohibition"! Frances Willard (1839-1898) was actually more radical than many of the women who joined her group, many of whom thought that women's suffrage was too daring a cause. (Willard sneaked in gender equality in her principles, which ends with a pledge to refrain from alcohol.) But prohibition was but a piece of Willard's "Do Everything" vision that saw suffrage and many other reforms as all connected for the uplift of working women and men and middle-class women alike. One of her most lasting accomplishments was the raising of the age of consent to protect girls (and boys) from sexual predators.

Answer: The Declaration of Sentiments

Did you notice that it parallels the Declaration of Independence in many respects? It is in fact the Declaration of Sentiments, as read by Elizabeth Cady Stanton at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, also known as the Woman's Rights Convention. The statements are true; under the law, a woman had no civil rights, and yes, if she committed a crime in her husband's presence, *he* was responsible. Moreover, women had to pay taxes and did not have rights to their children in case of divorce, at least not in New York State and indeed in most states of the Union.

By the way, notice the use of the singular. It was common practice in the nineteenth century to speak of 'woman' (like 'man') rather than women.

Answer: Margaret Sanger

Sanger wrote this in "Woman and the New Race" to explain why birth control is a woman's problem and why women must take control of it and not leave it to men or to the State to decide how to control the population. She argued that if women cannot control their own fertility, all the other freedoms and rights are meaningless. In the 21st century, Sanger has been criticized for using racialized rhetoric and espousing eugenics, but her legacy of family planning and reproductive healthcare remains in the organization known today as Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA).

Sanger wrote: "She who earns her own living gains a sort of freedom that is not to be undervalued, but in quality and in quantity it is of little account beside the untrammeled choice of...being a mother or not being a mother...

"Look at it from any standpoint you will...,woman is in the same position, fundamentally, until she is able to determine for herself whether she will be a mother and to fix the number of her offspring."

Answer: Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The Woman's Bible is an annotated Bible edited by Stanton and a committee of 26 other women. Stanton herself had strong feelings on the subject:
"The Bible teaches that woman brought sin and death unto the world, that she precipitated the fall of her race.... Marriage... was to be a condition of bondage, maternity a period of suffering and anguish, ...and for all her material wants, and for all the information she might desire upon the vital questions of the hour, she was commanded to ask her husband at home. Here is the Bible position of woman briefly summed up".

Stanton's opinion notwithstanding, many of the other editors found much to admire in the Bible, which covers most, though not all, of the books in the Protestant canon of the Bible. It's an interesting read whatever one's religious beliefs.

Answer: Simone de Beauvoir

Some critics called 'The Second Sex' pornography, and the Holy See placed it on its infamous Index of Forbidden Books. Not until 2009 was there a truly faithful Engilsh translation.

'The Second Sex' was Simone de Beauvoir's most famous book, perhaps, but she wrote many others, including a whopping four autobiographies, and travel books like 'America Day by Day' (1948). She wrote existential fiction such as 'All Men are Mortal' (1946), and her novel 'The Mandarins' (1954) won the Prix Goncourt. She also supported Hungary's struggle for independence and spoke against the Vietnam War.

Answer: The Feminine Mystique

Betty Friedan wrote 'The Feminine Mystique' after surveying her former classmates of Smith College for the 15th anniversary reunion. Dismayed that so many were unhappy with their lives as housewives, she coined the term "feminine mystique" to describe the false assumptions that her classmates had that they would find fulfillment through homemaking, childcare, and sex, and the belief that many psychologists and other prominent voices had at the time that women should have no political opinions or outside careers, or even an education beyond the very basic. Friedan called the dissatisfaction that many of her classmates felt "the problem with no name", a sort of anomie that the subjects of her study could not quite articulate, and that Friedan blamed on the restriction of women to the domestic sphere and their inability to get their needs met, particularly the highest need (according to pyschologist Abraham Maslow) of self-actualizaion. Friedan argued that to overcome "the problem with no name" women require what men require: education and meaningful work as well as a happy family, sex, and home life.