And Ain't I A Woman?

The short story, And Ain't I A Woman is a completely sexist and racist story.  It is more sexist because the women of the story are being viewed as not important people who all they should do is bear children and cook the meals (Truth).  It is really unfortunate to hear this, because women are so important to the everyday life.  If you think about your family, how important is the wife to the family?  Where would you be without that person taking care of the children, the house, cooking the meals, and all the other things that women do (some do work as well which provide income for their respective houses).  Sojourner Truth recognizes the sexism that is being put her way.  All the guys are saying that women are not as equal  because God was a man, and men are better (Truth).  Fortunately nowadays women are respected much more than they were back than, but unfortunately some people still view them below where men are.

In Emerson's self-reliance, there is a little paragraph about what doing what you should do and not let those people who think they know everything bring you down (Emerson).  It relates to Sojourner truth's message because she argued this point.  She argued over the fact that she was not going to let men push her around and tell her what to do.  She was going to stand up because she knew that God had made her just as equal as every other man or woman on the earth. This message still goes today because people all the time are letting other people's voices get inside their head.  We should not let them and ignore them.  Emerson actually spoke at a women's rights conventions and voiced his opinion about the subject (Wayne).  Although Emerson would never speak on the matter again, he did believe that women had rights that men did as well.  Thoreau did not voice his opinion on the matter, unlike Emerson.

Truth, Sojourner. "And Ain‘t I a Woman?." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 368-370. Print.

Wayne, Tiffany K. "'Address at the Woman's Rights Convention'." Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 12 Feb. 2012.


Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 13 Feb. 2012. .