When women can support themselves, have entry to all the trades and professions, with a house of their own over their heads and a bank account, they will own their bodies and be dictators in the social realm.
When we consider that women are treated as property it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the dehumanization of women and children when viewed as property rather than individuals.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton's quote draws a parallel between the societal treatment of women as property and the implications this has for the treatment of children. It emphasizes the degradation experienced by both women and children when they are not recognized as autonomous beings, but rather as possessions that can be discarded or controlled at will. This reflection on the interconnectedness of women's rights and children's rights urges society to reconsider how it values and respects all human life.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about women's rights and the importance of recognizing children's autonomy.
More from Elizabeth Cady Stanton
All quotes βTo live for a principle, for the triumph of some reform by which all mankind are to be lifted up to be wedded to an idea may be, after all, the holiest and happiest of marriages.
The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for the full development of her faculties, her forces of mind and body... is the solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life.
Only those who have lived all their lives under the dark clouds of vague, undefined fears can appreciate the joy of a doubting soul suddenly born into the kingdom of reason and free thought.
We demand in the Reconstruction suffrage for all the citizens of the Republic. I would not talk of Negroes or women, but of citizens.
Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving.
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