Life and writings of Amelia Bloomer

by D. C. Bloomer

God has implanted in woman’s nature an instinctive knowledge of what is proper and what improper for her to do, and it needs no laws of man to teach the one or compel the other.

Our lecturer assumes that ‘God did not design that woman’s sphere and woman’s work should be identical with that of man, but distinct and subordinate.’ That ‘woman is happiest in subordination, as well as more attractive,’ etc. This is, of course, only a picture of his imagination—only an expression of his own feelings and wishes. He can find no warrant for it in the Bible; for, as we have shown, God did not assign her to any particular sphere or work, but made her an helpmeet to stand side by side and walk hand in hand with man through the journey of life.

‘When aspiring, insubordinate, overtopping and turbulent woman loses all the attraction and fascination of her sex.’ Very true! and so do men of the same character lose all that commands our love and respect, and there are many more of the latter than of the former class! I know no such woman, but if there are any, every advocate of woman’s enfranchisement will do all they can to prevent her ever becoming so ‘restless, troubled, muddy, and bereft of beauty.’ So far as she has been admitted to the society of men they have not yet made her that terrible being they fear and dread. She has not proved herself coarse, vulgar, turbulent and corrupting in any society to which she has been admitted; and we would bid the reverend calm his excited mind, and remember that God made her woman, and under no change that has come to her has she proved untrue to the nature He implanted within her. So let him trust that the good God who is leading her forward into broader fields of usefulness will take care that she goes not beyond, in any respect, the limit He has fixed to her sphere.

Having settled the question that the sexes are to move in spheres distinct from each other to his own satisfaction, and having dismissed the apostle from the witness stand, we are told what, in the judgment of the speaker, is the proper and appropriate sphere of woman. In much of what follows we agree with him; but not altogether. ‘By analyzing any persons,’ men or women, ‘physically, mentally and morally, we can ascertain what station they are fitted to fill—what work they are fitted to do.’ And whatever either man or woman has capacity for doing, that is right and proper in and of itself; that thing it is right and proper for both, or either of them, to do. If God has given them a talent, He has along with it given them a right to its use, whether it be in the direction of the home, the workshop, the public assembly, or the Legislative Hall.

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 men, we must first have great women. If we would have noble men, we must first have noble mothers. A woman whose whole thought is occupied in cooking a good dinner and mending old clothes—or (a little more refined) whose thoughts center on a beautiful dress, elegant embroidery, the fashionable party, the latest novel or the latest fashion—can never give to the world a Bacon or a Newton, a Howard or a Wesley, a Buonaparte or a Washington. Our preacher lays a heavy responsibility on woman, but all his talk about her influence, her duty and her subordination is not going to give her that wisdom, strength and moral material out of which to properly construct the fabric of the Church and the Commonwealth.

We would by no means undervalue the home, or the mother’s duty and influence; but we would ennoble and purify the one, and enlarge the duties and extend the influence and power of the other. Our divine thinks that, because woman is mother, daughter, sister and wife, it is enough for her and she should desire nothing more. Man is father, husband, son and brother, and why is he not therefore content? What can he desire or ask for more? Let men realize that they, too, have duties to the home beyond merely supplying the money to satisfy the physical wants of the family; let them throw down the wall they have built up around the woman’s garden and invite her to survey with them the wider range from the loftier eminence, and many homes would be made glad that are now anything but Gardens of Eden, and many women would be strengthened for the full and faithful discharge of all their duties.

‘Woman is not a mechanic.’ Yes, she is. All men are not mechanics. I know women who have more mechanical genius than their husbands; and I believe there are few of the mechanical arts that women could not master and perform successfully, if custom permitted and necessity required. They are naturally ingenious, and fashion many things as difficult to learn as to saw a board or drive a nail, to make a watch or a shoe, a saddle or a harness. My next-door neighbor is a natural mechanic, and has manufactured various articles in wood, from a foot to two feet in size, such as tables, chairs, bedsteads, wardrobes, frames, brackets, etc., with only a penknife and a bit of sandpaper for tools, which are perfect specimens of workmanship, and are so acknowledged by first-class cabinetmakers. She has taken premiums on these articles for the best woodcutting and carving at our agricultural fairs. This work has only been done for pastime, and the lady is equally ingenious with the needle, as well as a good housekeeper, wife and mother. There are many women engaged in various kinds of mechanism.

There are many inventions by women; but how many have been patented, can only be known by inquiry at the Patent Office. And even then it would be difficult to ascertain facts, since the patent is generally obtained in the name of the husband. I have a lady friend who invented patterns for parlor stoves. Her husband had them patented in his own name, and entered upon the manufacture and sale of them.