They acknowledge the care of the House in the affairs of State. They have cheerfully joined in petitions which have been exhibited “in behalf of the purity of religion and the liberty of our husband’s persons and estates.” “We counting ourselves to have an interest in the common privileges with them.”
“It may be thought strange and unbeseeming to our sex to show ourselves by way of petition to this Honourable Assembly. But the matter being rightly considered of ... it will be found a duty commanded and required. (1) Because Christ hath purchased us at as dear a rate as he hath done men, and therefore requireth like obedience for the same mercy as men. (2) Because in the free enjoying of Christ in His own laws, and a flourishing estate of the Church and Commonwealth consisteth the happiness of women as well as of men. (3) Because women are sharers in the common calamities that accompany both Church and Commonwealth, when oppression is exercised over the Church or Kingdom wherein they live; and unlimited power given to the prelates to exercise authority over the consciences of women as well as men: witness Newgate and Smithfield, and other places of persecution, wherein women, as well as men, have felt the smart of their fury,” etc.
“The petition was presented by Mrs. Anne Stagg, a gentlewoman and brewer’s wife, and many others with her of like rank and quality. Mr. Pym came to the Common’s door, addressed the women and told them that their petition had been thankfully accepted and would be carefully considered.”
Coke’s papers had been seized by the King at his death in 1634, but on the 12th May, 1641, the House of Commons ordered Coke’s heir to print them, and thus his views on this point were perpetuated.
On the 13th February, 1620, Coke had committed the House to extraordinary doctrine in another relation to women. Among Mr. Lovell’s witnesses was a lady, Mrs. Newdigate, “the House calling to have them called in. Sir Edward Coke out of St. Barnard said, A woman ought not to speak in the congregation. Examination hereof committed to a committee” (Commons Journal). It is strange that Sir Edward Coke should have gone so far afield as St. Barnard when St. Paul might have come in as conveniently. Had he read the gospels as carefully as he had read St. Barnard, he would have seen that one of the first two preachers of Christ was Anna the prophetess, who spake of Him in the temple to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem (Luke ii. 36), and that it was through women that Christ sent the first message to the Apostles and Disciples, that became the watchword of early Christianity, “Christ is arisen” (Matthew xxviii., Luke xxiv., John xx.). Coke’s precedent on this point was reversed in his own century.
On the 17th November, 1666, “Some debate arising whether Mrs. Bodville, mother of Mrs. Roberts, should be admitted as witness, the matter being debated in the House, the question being put whether Mrs. Bodville be admitted, it was resolved in the affirmative, and Mrs. Bodville, with several other witnesses was examined” (Commons Journal).
His utterance on the Women’s Franchise has coloured the minds of willing disciples until to-day. In Add. MS. 25, 271, Hakewell on impositions, says, “To make a man judge in his own cause and especiallie ye mightie over ye weake, and that in pointe of profitt to him that judgeth, were to leave a way open to oppression and bondage.” So women proved. There is no doubt that Puritanism on the one hand, and the frivolity of the fashions of the Restoration on the other, tended to make women content with their narrowed political privileges, and restricted educational opportunities. Only among the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, did women retain their natural place. Though there were some brilliant exceptions, the majority of women, by the procrustean methods of treatment in vogue were reduced to the state of incompetency that society came to believe was natural to them. “It was unwomanly for women to think and act for themselves.” “Women had no concern in public affairs.” “Men knew much better than women did what was good for them,” were proverbs.
By losing one privilege they lost others. New laws were made prejudicial to their interests, and old laws retranslated in a new and narrow spirit. Precedent gained power to override statute; the notions of justice between the sexes became warped and distorted.
The laws of inheritance were altered, the rights of women in their property further ignored. Sophistical Labour Creeds were introduced to support masculine property privilege. Work was ignoble for ladies, except when done without remuneration; domestic work was not cognisable in coin of the realm, therefore women were said to be supported by their male relatives, though they might labour ten times as much as they. It was natural to educate them little, so that they should not know; it was natural to take privileges from those who knew not what they lost.
Protesting Women.—But the Suppression of the Sex did not go on without various Protests on the part of women during the 200 years of this Backdraw in the tide of Civilisation. We cannot spare time for every detail; but three illustrative women must be noted—the first born in the 16th Century, protesting against the infringement of the Inheritance Laws in relation to women; the second born in the 17th Century, against the withdrawal of their educational advantages; the third born in the 18th Century, against their social, civil and political degradation.