Remember the Ladies: Why the Founding Fathers Denied Rights to Women

While John Adams served in the Continental Congress, Abigail wrote to him and asked that he and his colleagues, remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. She also threatened that, If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.

This threat of a Ladies Rebellion seems a curious addition to her request until one considers its timing. It came just months before the Declaration of Independence, so her demands parallel those made by male patriots who felt wronged by the British government. Like them, she wanted representation; like them, she knew she did not have it. Indeed, her demands demonstrate a clear understanding of popularity sovereignty and the ideological justification for revolution. She saw clearly the irony in revolutionaries demanding the same liberties from the British government that they themselves denied to their wives.

Either John failed to see the logic of Abigail's point or he refused to acknowledge it, because his reply was somewhat harsh. In the very next paragraph after he discussed the forthcoming Declarations of Indepdency in his reply letter, he rebuked her quite harshly. He said, As to your extraordinary Code of Laws, I cannot but laugh..Depend upon it, We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems.and rather than give up this, which would completely subject Us to the Despotism of the Petticoat, I hope General Washington and all our brave Heroes would fight.