Commentaire de texte "women not inferior to men", Sophia 1739

Commentaire de texte – Civilisation Britannique

“Sophia”, Woman not Inferior to Man, 1739

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        The text we are going to study is an extract from the book Woman not inferior to Man, written under the pseudonym of “Sophia, A Person of Quality”, and published by Jacob Robinson in London in 1739.  The full title of this work actually gives a lot of information concerning its content : Woman not Inferior to Man: or, a Short and Modest Vindication of the Natural Right of the Fair-Sex to a Perfect Equality of Power, Dignity and Esteem with the Men 1.

Indeed, as the predominant ideology at that time placed women as inferior and subordinated to men, a reaction against this sexism started to emerge at the end of the 17th century, and kept going on through the 18th. Some women from the upper classes wrote and published works concerning the intellectual potential of women, women's education, or marriage. One of them, Mary Astell, is known as the first english feminist as she was the first to put forward feminist arguments in a systematic and reasoned manner. This is the context in which Woman not inferior to Man was written. The use of the pseudonym “Sophia” tells a lot about the context too. Many women published their work anonymously to express their opinions without any constraints of gender.

In the full work, the author uses arguments from the French Marie de Gournay and François Poullain de la Barre who both wrote about intellectual equality between men and women, to give her work more relevance. She affirms that the only intellectual difference between men and women comes from their education, not their nature. She stands for the fact that women deserves the same education as men: “Why is learning useless to us? Because we have no share in public offices. And why have we no share in public offices ? Because we have no learning.1”( Chapter 3). This book is however intended for both men and women.  In the extract, which is placed in the first chapter of her book, Sophia argues that  “ we must be obliged to appeal to a more impartial judge, one incapable of incliding to either side , and consequently unsuspected on both.”( L.22-24 ) She affirms that the only  Judge is pure reason, distinct from arguments based on prejudice or custom. The author clearly uses the Enlightment-era discourse of “natural rights” in her work : “nature invincibly proves an equality in our sex with their own” ( L. 18-19 ). In this perspective, it is interesting to ask ouselves : how Sophia's argumentation is built and what are its limits ?

1: Ockerbloom, Mary Mark, editor. “Woman Not Inferior to Man.” A Celebration of Women Writers, Digital Library Upenn Edu, digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sophia/woman/woman.html. 

First, we are going to discuss the theme of feminine revendication in the text and analyze the argumentation and references to other authors, and then we will consider the limits of this text.

        This treaty, Woman not inferior to Man, is part of a long series of writings about the intellectual and natural superiority of men on women, and that argues against female prejudices in culture and institutions. Even if this text was written in 1739, there is a certain modernity in it as it is written in prose and published as a pamphlet. The title of this work is striking too and already suggest a debate. In the first paragraph of the extract, Sophia states that “ possession empower'd [men] to make violence take place of justice” (L.4-5). She accuses men to “prononce sentence in their own favour” (L.3-4)  by interest even if nothing has ever proved their superiority. According to the author, this domination is only based on “custom, prejudice and interest”(L.2-3) which is not relevant to justify their superiority. Sophia treats customs and history as unchanging edifices when she states that “Men of our times […] have taken the same liberty from the report of other Men” (L.5-6). She accuses men to only follow old ideas without trying to think by themselves and make their own one. The main idea of this extract is the fact that “prejudice and precipitance are the chief causes of setting less value upon Women that Men” (L.14-15). She uses arguments from the Enlightment-era, as she wants to prove that their is an equality between Men and Woman “nature invincibly proves an equality in our sex with their own” (L.18-19). Since the Enlightment, science was seen as a neutral viewpoint  above political life. Many have hoped that science could serve as a neutral arbiter in social debate including the woman's question. This is the case for Sophia who claims that reason is sexless : “ This I apprehend to be rectified reason, as it is a pure intellectual faculty, elevated above the consideration of any sex” (L.24-26).

Sophia is ironical about the “Men Philosophers” (L.17) , as she claims that the faulty logic and the introduction of prejudices is made up by men themselves. In the third paragraph of the extract, the author states her main idea of reason being the only judge, as said previously. However, it is important to notice a reference to the bible in “To this Judge we leave our cause” (L.27). Judge here is written with a capital letter, which was not the case when the word was prevously cited. Generally, this is used to refer to God, and Sophia was aware of it when she wrote it. Indeed, she suggests that instead of leaving “our cause” (L.27) to God, we should be governed by reason. She is opposing reason and religion with this word. This is totally relevant with the end of the sentence: “ by the decision of this we prepare to stand or fall” (L.27-28). She is again comparing reason to God, saying that it should be the only thing to govern people. She also states that “If […] reason should declare us inferior to Men, we will chearfully acquiesce in the sentence” (L28-30), which means that if a scientifical argument proves that women are inferior to men, there will be no reason to argue as reason is the “impartial judge” (L. 23). Her argumentation is built around a question : “ What if we obtain a decree in our favour” (L.31). Sophia here is questioning men about how they would feel when women will be proved as equal to them, and that their whole supremacy will be seen as unlegitimate. Sophia wrote this passage as the introduction of a dissertation, starting with a general context, then a question to finally announce what she is going to do next “ To set this all matter then [...]” (L.39). This construction makes it clear to understand and more relevant. The author states that people have to seperate “ the fictitious from the real” (L.40), which means that we should reconsider women's potential without taking into acount prejudices. There is a series of comparisons to reinforce it “ practice from principles, belief from knowledge...” (L.40-44).

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