Life and writings of Amelia BloomerBloomer, D. C. (Dexter C.)
History
Life and writings of Amelia Bloomer
Bloomer, D. C. (Dexter C.)
Bloomer, Amelia Jenks, 1818-1894; Women's rights -- United States
And if woman has hitherto neglected to improve all her God-given
talents, it is because men have only permitted her to get glimpses
of the world ‘from the little elevation in her own garden,’ where
they have fenced her in. But let them invite her to the ‘loftier
eminence’ where they stand, with the world for her sphere, as
it was at the beginning, and then they can better judge of the
qualities of her mind, and her capacity to fill any station.
In talking of man’s strength of body and mind fitting him for
certain places, and woman’s weakness consigning her to other
places, he forgets that intellectually, at least, a great many
women are stronger than a great many men, and therefore better
fitted for places where brains, instead of muscle, are needed. It
is no more true that every woman was made to be a cook and a washer
of dishes and clothes, than that every man was made to be a wood
sawyer and a ditch digger. While some are content, in either case,
to fill those stations, others are not content, and never will be,
and will aspire to something better and higher. To what place the
weak little men are to be consigned our speaker fails to tell us.
The home picture in the sermon is all very beautiful. Would
that all homes were a realization of the picture! Woman is told
great things of her duties, her influence, her glories and her
responsibilities, but not a word have we of man’s duty to the
home, the wife, the children. Woman is told that it is hers to
make her children great and good, as though they were like a blank
sheet of white paper and would take any impress she chose to give;
when, in fact, they are stamped before they see the light of the
world with the gross and vicious natures of their tobacco-chewing
and wine-bibbing fathers, as well as with the weaknesses of the
mothers, and it is often impossible for the best of mothers to
so train their children that they may safely pass the pitfalls
that men have everywhere placed to lead them into temptation and
destruction. We protest against the mothers being held alone
responsible for the children, so long as fathers wholly neglect
their duties and set such examples and such temptations before
their children as to corrupt their young lives and destroy the good
influence the mother might otherwise exert. Not till mothers have
a voice in saying what influences and temptations shall surround
their children when they go beyond the nursery walls, can they
justly be held accountable to society or to God for their conduct.
The woman who only takes a narrow view of life from the little
eminence in her garden can never give to the world very good or
very great children. She must be permitted to take in a wider
range from a loftier eminence, before she can form those great
characters and inscribe upon the immortal mind the great things
that are expected and demanded of her. If we would have great
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account