ity.

But is it true that the equality of man and woman would not be
useful to society? We might answer this question in the
affirmative were the sexes alike, but for the very reason that
they differ in many respects, is the presence of woman by the
side of man, if we desire order and justice, everywhere
necessary. Is it graceful, I ask, to walk on one leg? Men, since
the beginning of history, have had the bad taste to prefer a lame
society to one that is healthy and beautiful. We women have
really too much taste to yield longer to such deformity. In law,
in institutions, in every social and political matter, there are
two sides. Up to the present day, man has usurped what belongs to
woman. That is the reason why we have injustice, corruption,
international hatred, cruelty, war, shameful laws--man assuming,
in regard to woman, the sinful relation of slaveholder. Such
relation must and will change, because we women have decided that
it shall not exist. With you, gentlemen, we will vote, legislate,
govern--not only because it is our right, but because it is time
to substitute order, peace, equity, and virtue, for the disorder,
war, cruelty, injustice, and corruption which you, acting alone,
have established. You doubt our fitness to take part in
government because we are fickle, extravagant, etc., etc., as you
say. I answer, there is an inconsiderable minority which deserve
such epithets; but even if all women deserved them, who is in
fault? You not only prefer the weak-minded, extravagant women to
the strong-minded and reasonable ones, but as soon as a woman
attempts to leave her sphere, you, coward-like, throw yourselves
before her, and secure to your own profit all remunerative
occupations. I could, perhaps, forgive your selfishness and
injustice, but I can not forgive your want of logic nor your
hypocrisy. You condemn woman to starvation, to ignorance, to
extravagance, in order to please yourselves, and then reproach
her for this ignorance and extravagance, while you heap blame and
ridicule on those who are educated, wise, and frugal. You are,
indeed, very absurd or very silly. Your judgment is so weak that
you reproach woman with the faults of a slave, when it is you who
have made and who keep her a slave, and who know, moreover, that