Legal Disabilities of Women and Letters on the Inequalities of the Sexes - Essay Example

Legal Disabilities of Women and Letters on the Inequalities of the Sexes The Grimke, s that once a man gets the affection of the woman, he uses her as an instrument to satisfy his pleasure. “By flattery, by an appeal to her passions, he seeks access to her heart; and when he has gained her affections, he uses her as the instrument of his pleasure – the minister of his temporal comforts” (Grimke 1). From this statement it is very clear that a woman is used as an instrument of pleasure by the man.

“He furnishes himself with a housekeeper, whose chief business is in the kitchen, or the nursery” (Grimke 1). Her position in the house is in the kitchen or the nursery; she is the housekeeper and takes care of all the household duties and needs.“Man has inflicted an unspeakable injury upon woman, by holding up to her view her animal nature, and placing in the background her moral and intellectual being” (Grimke 2). From this statement, the woman has placed in the back in regard to her intellectual and moral being; she is viewed by her animal nature and not on her human being nature.

The woman further worsens the situation by submitting to such derogatory statements. The author states that “woman has inflicted an injury upon herself by submitting to be thus regarded; and she is now called upon to rise … and claim those sacred and inalienable rights, as a moral and responsible being …” (Grimke 2). The being of the woman is like that of a slave and it is absorbed by her master. Grimke (1) asserts that “all contracts made with her, like those made with slaves by their owner, are a mere nullity”.

This indicates that any contract made between the man and the woman is futile; it cannot work since the woman has no legal rights. This can be illustrated by the following statement where men have convinced women that they do not possess any rights to investigate or examine the laws; “they have persuaded us, that we have no rights to investigate the laws, and that, if we did, we could not comprehend them; they alone are capable of understanding the mysteries of Blackstone, &c” (Grimke 1).

The woman has been left by the man in regard to taking care of the family needs. The money that has been acquired through the marriage is spent by the man the way he pleases. “Yet a man may spend the property he has acquired by marriage at the ale-house, the gambling table, or in any other way that he pleases” (Grimke 2). From this statement it is clear that the woman has no right over the property spending. She toils hard to support the family regardless of her husband’s dissolute and wasteful habits.

The author states that the woman has been left, “in consequence of the wasteful and dissolute habits of their husbands, in straitened circumstances, and compelled to toil for the support of their families” (Grimke 2). Works CitedGrimke, Sarah M. Letter. Letter XII: Legal Disabilities of Women. 1837: 1-5. Print. Grimke, Sarah. Letter. Letters Addressed To Mary S. Parker, President Of The Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society On The Inequalities Of The Sexes. 1837: 1-7. Print.