Nature vs. Nurture: Judith Murray's Argument

Judith Sargent Murray's "On the Equality of Sexes" begins with a poem and expands into a fiery attack on society's urge to educate men and leave women to work domestic lives. She claims that intellect is composed of four heads--imagination, reason, memory and judgment. I found interesting her argument that fashion, something women have always dominated, is a concrete example of invention, a subset of imagination.

Murray's rhetorical fashion is a key to her successful writing. She asks the reader, "Is the needle and kitchen sufficient to employ the operations of a soul thus organized?" and "'But our judgment is not so strong--we do not distinguish so well.'--Yet it may be questioned, from what doth this superiority in this determining factor of the soul, proceed?" This rhetoric almost forces the reader to question his/her own stereotypes and judgments, which I find to be very effective.

Her argument revolves around the fact that it is the lack of proper education, not the nature of women, that puts women lower than men in society. She says men and women are born equal in the eyes of God. Social and intrafamilial relationships ultimately decide how our women develop physically, intellectually and emotionally.