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'Letters from a Freeman of New Haven'

Marquis de Condorcet
(1743-1794)

from 'Letters from a Freeman of New Haven to a Citizen of Virginia on the Futility of Dividing the Legislative Power among Several Bodies' (1787) wherein Condorcet writes about political equality for women.

"Having established as a question of justice the principle that we stop debarring women from the right of citizenship, I shall now examine the question of their eligibility for public functions. Any exclusion involves two forms of injustice; one with regard to the voters, whose freedom is restricted, and the other with regard to those who are excluded and deprived of advantages given to the others. Legal exclusions should therefore be made only when reason clearly proves their utility. If we select a good election method, this should only very rarely be the case. In fact, there would be no drawbacks if only those people who had been tried and found guilty of certain crimes and those in domestic service were legally excluded. We could then – and indeed, out of respect for freedom, we should - limit ourselves to establishing by law the incompatibility of certain posts. I am not talking about a minimum age, which should be the civil majority required for the right of citizenship. Clearly, a law defining certain posts as incompatible would not cause any inequality. Nor would it really restrict choices, because if no post is redundant, then no two can be filled by the same person at once. It seems to follow from this principle that no law should exclude women from any post. People will argue that it would be absurd for a woman to command the army or preside over a tribunal. But does the law really need expressly to forbid citizens from making absurd choices or carrying out absurd actions, like choosing a blind person as the secretary of a tribunal or paving over their fields? It is one thing or the other; either the voters will want to make good choices and do not need such rules, or else they will want to make bad ones and such rules will not prevent them.

Besides, it is important to note that the change I am suggesting presupposes a change in civil law, which would necessarily entail another in customs and another equally important one in the education of women, so that objections which seem reasonable today would cease to be so before the new arrangements came into force.

The female constitution means that they would make unsuitable soldiers and, for some of their lives, debars them from posts which require hard work on a daily basis. Pregnancy, childbirth and breast-feeding would prevent them from fulfilling these functions. But I believe that all other differences between men and women are simply the result of education. Even if we agree that women might still not have the same mental or physical power as men, this would mean simply that the best women were equal to the second-best men, better than the third best, and so on. Voltaire, one man who has been most just towards women and who knew them best, granted them every talent except invention. But if posts could be filled only by men capable of invention, many would remain vacant, even in academies. On the contrary, for a great many posts, it is not even in the interests of the public that the time of a man of genius be sacrificed. Besides, I am doubtful about the truth of this opinion of women. If we compare the number of women who have had a sustained and thorough education with the number of men who had the same advantage, or if we examine the very small number of men of genius who are self-made, we see that the constant observations cited in support of this opinion cannot be regarded as proof. Besides, the restrictions placed upon the souls and minds of women by custom and opinion, almost from infancy and especially from the time when genius begins to develop, are bound to affect its progress in almost all areas. Consider how few monks have shown signs of genius, even in areas where the restrictions of their state seem to have least effect. And are we quite sure that no woman has ever shown signs of genius? As far as I know, this is true of science and philosophy, but is it true in other areas? To mention only French women, do we not find genius in the style of Mme de Sevigne? And are there not signs of passion and sensibility in the novels of Mme de la Fayette, and some others, which would be called signs of genius in a dramatic work?

This examination may seem very long, but we are discussing the right of half of the human race which have been neglected by all legislators. Besides, it cannot harm men's freedom to show how to overcome the only possible objection against republics, and to mark out a real difference between them and States which are not free. Even a philosopher finds it hard not to get a little carried away when discussing women. However, I fear that I shall fall foul of them if ever they read this article. I have discussed their right to equality and not their influence, and so might be suspected of secretly wishing to decrease their influence. And since Rousseau gained their support by saying that they were made simply to look after us and were fit only to torment us, I should not expect their support. But truth is a good thing, even if I lay myself open to ridicule by speaking it. I shall now return to the subject of this letter."

from Iain McLean and Fiona Hewitt (translators and editors), Condorcet, Foundations of Social Choice and Political Theory [Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 1994] pp. 298-299

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