Harmful Masculine Core of Early American Legislation

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Women Legal Position
Female and Racial Solidarity
Conclusion
References

Introduction

History shows that the collective gender of the ruling class significantly influences the nature of legislation and the social structure of the countries in which they govern. The chronology of United States (US) legislation is an example; it has gone from masculine to gender-neutral in terms of rights and responsibilities. Early American laws impeded the development of female and racial solidarity and women’s empowerment due to its underlying male perspective.

Women Legal Position

The first American laws significantly constrained the rights of both white women and women of color. Husbands had to go to court instead of their spouses for the defense to be considered valid (Winter, 1639). For example, there is a recording of how “John Winter… defends his wife against charges that she had cruelly beaten Priscilla” (Winter, 1639, para. 2). The laws applied to women of color were even more restrictive and repressive (Snyder, 2015). They were designed this way because male legislators feared that equal rights would create chaos and disorder (Carrol, 2003). Therefore, the early US masculine legal system intentionally suppressed women’s legal position.

Female and Racial Solidarity

Early US laws also forbade the formation of female and racial solidarity. The first legislation formulated only by men tied social status to the inheritable characteristic of the individual, where the mother’s race was the decisive factor (Snyder, 2015). This rule deliberately maintained the divisive societal structure and racial and gender prejudices. It also supported the development of the master-slave type of relations between representatives of higher and lower social strata, even of the same race and gender. The case of John Winter’s wife, who beat her maid, is an indication of it. (Winter, 1639). Any attempt to form female and racial solidarity was systematically suppressed.

Conclusion

This work explores how the first US legal system obstructed women’s empowerment and female and racial solidarity. Developed inferences lead to the question of how gender percentage in legislators influences the conceptual nature of laws, rights, and legal duties of a country over time. Another one is how dominant female legislatures affect social unity and racial relations.

References

Carrol, B. (2004). American Revolution. In B. Carrol (Ed.), American masculinities: A historical encyclopedia (pp. 1-4). SAGE Publications.

Snyder, T. L. (2015). Women, race, and the law in early America. In J. Butler (Ed.), Oxford research encyclopedia of American history (pp. 1-23). Oxford University Press.

Winters, J. (1639). Servitude in New England. Digital History. Web.

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Harmful Masculine Core of Early American Legislation

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