Why Women Are Not Slaves

In Susan B Anthony’s “Constitutional Argument,” Anthony argues that women are not like slaves due to the fact that they are not socially stripped of their personality and that they differ in degree of discrimination from slaves. However Susan Miller Okin, in “Selections from Justice, Gender, and the Family,” would reject Anthony’s argument. Okin argues that women are “collective assets” as well as women have a right to property that slaves lack. Dothard v. Rawlinson is a clear example of differences in gender leading to discrimination.
In “Constitutional Argument,” Susan B Anthony argues that women are not like slaves because they are not socially stripped of their identity. Both slaves and women, according to Anthony, lack a civil personality, or a deprivation of civil rights (right to vote, hold/sell property, etc.). Women, however, are deemed “socially acceptable” in society, while slaves are viewed as lesser members of society. In addition, women differ from slaves through different levels of discrimination. Slaves are viewed as nothing more than slaves, while women are viewed as “household slaves,” in a somewhat higher light. Additionally, within a marriage, the wife belongs as personal property to the husband and women lack the right to co-equal property in marriage due to being the lesser member of the partnership.
However, Susan Miller Okin, in “Selections from Justice, Gender, and the Family,” refutes Anthony’s argument by arguing that women are “collective assets,” meaning that people are entitled to their assets and what comes from the assets, and that they own themselves. Okin argues that women perceive themselves and their self-worth which differs them from slaves. This self-worth gives women a monetary value for their “assets” in society. Okin argues that people are both male and female and that females differ from males through a specific property, which is the ability to bear and conceive offspring. Okin’s property argument has a relation to... [continues]

Read full essay