John Adams

Abigail Adams

March 31, 1776 · Massachusetts, USA · On the new laws to be made after independence

I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could.

Letter to her husband John Adams

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Abigail Adams

May 7, 1776 · Massachusetts, USA · On receiving her husband's reply

I cannot say that I think you are very generous to the ladies; for, whilst you are proclaiming peace and good-will to men, emancipating all nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over wives. But you must remember that arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken.

A further letter to her husband John Adams

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Mary Wollstonecraft

1792 · London, England · Answering Rousseau's remark that if women are educated like men, they will have less power over us

This is the very point I aim at. I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

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Sor Juana Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

late 17th century · Mexico City, New Spain

Foolish men, who accuse woman without reason, not seeing that you are the cause of the very thing you blame.

Hombres necios, que acusais A la mujer, sin razon, Sin ver que sois la ocasion De lo mismo que culpais

The redondillas "Foolish Men" (Hombres necios)

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John Stuart Mill

1869 · London, England

the principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes--the legal subordination of one sex to the other--is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other.

The Subjection of Women, chapter 1

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