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The Feminist Papers: From Adams to De Beauvoir
Major writings by feminists document the movement's development and goals from the late-eighteenth to mid-twentieth century
716 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 27, 2011
A collection of essays and excerpts regarding the fight for women's rights, beginning with Abigail Adams' letters to her husband John. Rossi has done extensive research on the history of the movement and the leaders involved, and the essays she wrote to introduce the chapters and authors were more interesting to read than the essays themselves. Reading today a thirty-year-old book on this subject also revealed some interesting insights regarding what was only hoped for then, as compared to what has come to pass in the meantime. This book has been in my personal library for a long time, but I can't recall how it got there.
December 22, 2015
An interesting summary of the history of feminism shown through excerpts of original texts. I was able to add a few more books to my to-read list. Reading this took forever, partly because I kept losing it, partly because I'd get distracted, but I'm glad I stuck with it.
October 11, 2014
I liked this but I would have appreciated more dedicated to feminists of color!
July 2, 2025
AN EXCELLENT COLLECTION OF HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS
Editor Alice S. Rossi wrote in the Preface to this 1973 book, “When the publisher approached me about editing the ‘essential works of feminism’ in October 1970… The magnitude of the task seemed overwhelming… Most anthologies have a format of an interpretative introductory essay followed by a series of abridged documents… I began to read memoirs and biographies of the feminists whose work I had abridged… Except for the work on John Stuart Mill and his relationship to Harriet Taylor, I had never studied history with a focus on women… I had never before experienced so keenly a sense of continuity with previous generations… Now I have acquire a long line of feminists in the past. There is strength in the vision of a sisterhood that has roots in the past and extends into the future. I hope this volume enables its readers to share in that vision.” (Pg. ix-xi)
She continues, “It is … with some regret that I have omitted the contemporary period. The most recent selection is from Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex’… It is hoped that the selections, together with the interpretative essays that accompany them, will communicate the diversity that existed under the feminist banner in the past. The feminist movement has included deeply religious women as well as atheists; conservative moralists as well as radical reformers and revolutionaries; women in deep rebellion from their families and the larger society as well as women in comfortable happy circumstances, who chipped away gently at some social expectation of appropriate behavior for women.” (Pg. xvi)
The collection begins with Abigail Adams’ famous 1776 letter to her husband John Adams: “I desire you would Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do no put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all men wo8uld be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation…Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our own happiness.” (Pg. 10-11)
It includes a selection from Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’: “the woman who strengthens her body an exercises her mind will, by managing her family and practicing various virtues, become the friend, and not the humble dependent of her husband; and if she, by possessing such substantial qualities, merit his regard, she will not find it necessary to conceal her affection, not to pretend to an unnatural coldness of constitution to excite her husband’s passions. In fact, if we revert to history, we shall find that the women who have distinguished themselves have been neither the most beautiful nor the most gentle of their sex.” (Pg. 51)
She continues, “To render mankind more virtuous, and happier of course, both sexes must act from the same principle; but how can that be expected when only one is allowed to see the reasonableness of it? To render also the social compact truly equitable, and in order to spread those enlightening principles which along can ameliorate the fate of man, women must be allowed to found their virtue on knowledge, which is scarcely possible unless they be educated by the same pursuits as men. For they are made so inferior by ignorance and low desires, as not to deserve to be ranked with them; or, by the serpentine wrigglings of cunning they mount the tree of knowledge, and only acquire sufficient to lead men astray.” (Pg. 81)
Then to John Stuart Mill’s essay, ‘On the Subjection of Women’: “Nor does it avail anything to say that the NATURE of the two sexes adapts them to their present functions and position, and renders these appropriate to them.. I deny that anyone knows, or can know, the nature of the two sexes, as long as they have only been seen in their present relation to one another… It may be asserted without scruple, that no other class of dependents have had their character so entirely distorted from its natural proportions by their relation with their masters; for, if conquered and slave races have been… forcibly repressed, whatever in them has not been crushed down by an iron heel has … developed itself according to its own laws; but in the case of woman, a hothouse and stove cultivation has always been carried on of some of the capabilities of their nature, for the benefit and care of their masters…” (Pg.. 203)
He adds, “[Another] benefit to be expected by giving to women the free use of their faculties, by leaving them the free choice of their employments, and opening to them the same field of occupation and the same prizes and encouragements as to other human beings, would be that of doubling the mass of mental faculties available for the higher service of humanity.” (Pg. 232)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Introduction to ‘The Woman’s Bible’ states: “The only points in which I differ from all ecclesiastical teaching is that I do not believe that any man ever saw or talked with God. I do not believe that God inspired the Mosaic code, for all the religions on the face of the earth degrade her, and do long as women accepts the position that they assign her, her emancipation is impossible.” (Pg. 405-406)
Friedrich Engels’ ‘The Origin of the Family’ asserts: “when monogamous marriage fir makes its appearance in history, it is not as the reconciliation of man and woman, still less as the highest form of such a reconciliation. Quite the contrary. Monogamous marriage comes on the scene as the subjugation of one sex by the other; it announces a struggle between the sexes unknown throughout the whole previous prehistoric period… Monogamous marriage was a great historical step forward; nevertheless, together with slavery and private wealth, it opens the period that has lasted until today in which … prosperity and development for some is won through the misery and frustration of others. It is the cellular form of civilized society, in which the nature of the oppositions and contradictions fully active in that society can be already studied.” (Pg. 482)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘Women and Economics’ suggests, “If the wife is not, then, truly a business partner, in what way does she earn from her husband the food, clothing, and shelter she receives at his hands? By house service, it will be instantly replied. This is the general misty idea upon the subject---that women earn all they get, and more, by house service. Here we come to a very practical and definite economic ground. Although not producers of wealth, women service in the final processes of preparation and distribution. Their labor in the household has a genuine economic value.” (Pg. 573)
Virginia Woolf points out in ‘A Room of One’s Own’: “I could not help thinking, as I looked at the works of Shakespeare on the shelf, that… it would have been impossible … for any woman to have written the works of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare. Let me imagine…. What would have happened had Shakespeare had a wonderfully gifted sister… she was not sent to school. She had no chance of learning grammar and logic, let alone or reading Horace and Virgil… Like him, she had a taste for the theatre. She stood at the stage door; she wanted to act she said. Men laughed in her face…” (Pg. 639-640)
This is a marvelous collection of LENGTHY selections from these ‘historical’ documents. It will be needed to supplement this book with anthologies of more RECENT (i.e., post-de Beauvoir) documents, of course.”
Editor Alice S. Rossi wrote in the Preface to this 1973 book, “When the publisher approached me about editing the ‘essential works of feminism’ in October 1970… The magnitude of the task seemed overwhelming… Most anthologies have a format of an interpretative introductory essay followed by a series of abridged documents… I began to read memoirs and biographies of the feminists whose work I had abridged… Except for the work on John Stuart Mill and his relationship to Harriet Taylor, I had never studied history with a focus on women… I had never before experienced so keenly a sense of continuity with previous generations… Now I have acquire a long line of feminists in the past. There is strength in the vision of a sisterhood that has roots in the past and extends into the future. I hope this volume enables its readers to share in that vision.” (Pg. ix-xi)
She continues, “It is … with some regret that I have omitted the contemporary period. The most recent selection is from Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex’… It is hoped that the selections, together with the interpretative essays that accompany them, will communicate the diversity that existed under the feminist banner in the past. The feminist movement has included deeply religious women as well as atheists; conservative moralists as well as radical reformers and revolutionaries; women in deep rebellion from their families and the larger society as well as women in comfortable happy circumstances, who chipped away gently at some social expectation of appropriate behavior for women.” (Pg. xvi)
The collection begins with Abigail Adams’ famous 1776 letter to her husband John Adams: “I desire you would Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do no put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all men wo8uld be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation…Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our own happiness.” (Pg. 10-11)
It includes a selection from Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’: “the woman who strengthens her body an exercises her mind will, by managing her family and practicing various virtues, become the friend, and not the humble dependent of her husband; and if she, by possessing such substantial qualities, merit his regard, she will not find it necessary to conceal her affection, not to pretend to an unnatural coldness of constitution to excite her husband’s passions. In fact, if we revert to history, we shall find that the women who have distinguished themselves have been neither the most beautiful nor the most gentle of their sex.” (Pg. 51)
She continues, “To render mankind more virtuous, and happier of course, both sexes must act from the same principle; but how can that be expected when only one is allowed to see the reasonableness of it? To render also the social compact truly equitable, and in order to spread those enlightening principles which along can ameliorate the fate of man, women must be allowed to found their virtue on knowledge, which is scarcely possible unless they be educated by the same pursuits as men. For they are made so inferior by ignorance and low desires, as not to deserve to be ranked with them; or, by the serpentine wrigglings of cunning they mount the tree of knowledge, and only acquire sufficient to lead men astray.” (Pg. 81)
Then to John Stuart Mill’s essay, ‘On the Subjection of Women’: “Nor does it avail anything to say that the NATURE of the two sexes adapts them to their present functions and position, and renders these appropriate to them.. I deny that anyone knows, or can know, the nature of the two sexes, as long as they have only been seen in their present relation to one another… It may be asserted without scruple, that no other class of dependents have had their character so entirely distorted from its natural proportions by their relation with their masters; for, if conquered and slave races have been… forcibly repressed, whatever in them has not been crushed down by an iron heel has … developed itself according to its own laws; but in the case of woman, a hothouse and stove cultivation has always been carried on of some of the capabilities of their nature, for the benefit and care of their masters…” (Pg.. 203)
He adds, “[Another] benefit to be expected by giving to women the free use of their faculties, by leaving them the free choice of their employments, and opening to them the same field of occupation and the same prizes and encouragements as to other human beings, would be that of doubling the mass of mental faculties available for the higher service of humanity.” (Pg. 232)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Introduction to ‘The Woman’s Bible’ states: “The only points in which I differ from all ecclesiastical teaching is that I do not believe that any man ever saw or talked with God. I do not believe that God inspired the Mosaic code, for all the religions on the face of the earth degrade her, and do long as women accepts the position that they assign her, her emancipation is impossible.” (Pg. 405-406)
Friedrich Engels’ ‘The Origin of the Family’ asserts: “when monogamous marriage fir makes its appearance in history, it is not as the reconciliation of man and woman, still less as the highest form of such a reconciliation. Quite the contrary. Monogamous marriage comes on the scene as the subjugation of one sex by the other; it announces a struggle between the sexes unknown throughout the whole previous prehistoric period… Monogamous marriage was a great historical step forward; nevertheless, together with slavery and private wealth, it opens the period that has lasted until today in which … prosperity and development for some is won through the misery and frustration of others. It is the cellular form of civilized society, in which the nature of the oppositions and contradictions fully active in that society can be already studied.” (Pg. 482)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘Women and Economics’ suggests, “If the wife is not, then, truly a business partner, in what way does she earn from her husband the food, clothing, and shelter she receives at his hands? By house service, it will be instantly replied. This is the general misty idea upon the subject---that women earn all they get, and more, by house service. Here we come to a very practical and definite economic ground. Although not producers of wealth, women service in the final processes of preparation and distribution. Their labor in the household has a genuine economic value.” (Pg. 573)
Virginia Woolf points out in ‘A Room of One’s Own’: “I could not help thinking, as I looked at the works of Shakespeare on the shelf, that… it would have been impossible … for any woman to have written the works of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare. Let me imagine…. What would have happened had Shakespeare had a wonderfully gifted sister… she was not sent to school. She had no chance of learning grammar and logic, let alone or reading Horace and Virgil… Like him, she had a taste for the theatre. She stood at the stage door; she wanted to act she said. Men laughed in her face…” (Pg. 639-640)
This is a marvelous collection of LENGTHY selections from these ‘historical’ documents. It will be needed to supplement this book with anthologies of more RECENT (i.e., post-de Beauvoir) documents, of course.”
June 11, 2022
I've been reading this on and off for what must be years at this point, and I'm glad I finally finished. Some good shit in here.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews