Female Ethos

Margaret Fell and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz are defending both the ethos of women as well as womens' right to speak and learn in these texts. I find it interesting that (mainly because of the time period) much of their claims have to do with the church, not only because the church was becoming a sphere where women could speak and participate, but because today, many people who claim religion as part of their ethos can sometimes be taken seriously only by a specific audience. 

I also find both of these women’s stories really interesting – in a different way than previous readings. Cicero and Quintilian’s lives are still intriguing, but when we read these women authors we see this sort of “underworld” society because of what they had to do and where they had to go in order to be able to speak. I guess that figures more with de Scullery, but it’s the same with Fell and Cruz because they still are not particularly a part of the “main-stream” sphere, but instead in very specific spheres. 

Anyway, the only real difference between the arguments with Fell and Cruz that I found was that Fell argues that women have the right to speak in the Church, even go so far as to prophesize, because Biblical evidence has shown that women have been the bearers of the Word to man. This is interesting because it still sort of places women outside by saying that these words aren’t even their own – they are the words of God, not of the woman herself. Although Fell was taking big steps to include women in this sphere, it still limits women because the only reason those women are taken seriously is because they claim to be speaking someone else’s words (or at least she seems to).

I like Cruz’s argument better because she is more simply appealing for womens’ right to learn and study, rather than trying to illustrate a female ethos as being the word of God; I find her devotion to study very inspiring. It’s almost as though she understands that she had the ability to think and learn and speak just as well as anyone (any man, I should say), but she also realizes that her position and her society does not grant her that right, so she would rather propel the idea of teaching women so that they in turn can teach women/girls within a permitted space – such as the domestic sphere – for the benefit of society.

These women definitely seem like they create a specific ethos for women. In Fell’s case, it would be that the female voice is powerful and credible because Scripture and God has allowed them to speak. For Cruz, it is as not that women are entitled to speak, but rather that women can learn to speak just as well as anyone. Ethos for a man is much different just in the sense that a man doesn’t have to establish their credibility based on their being a man, they instead have to establish it on whether or not they are or are perceived as being a good man. Women have to justify being a woman, which we now see as (almost) trivial, instead of justifying themselves based on a moral or educational level.