Hi ladies! I stumbled across this essay by lady from the 1800s, Catherine Beecher, that had some really interesting points that I thought were just so applicable today. A lot of the essay is on the religious side and some of them were specific to that time period, but taking that all away, she makes some wonderful arguments for the power of femininity that just make so much sense.

Here's a link to the whole essay, but it is a bit wordy and uses formal 19th century language so here are some of the main points I thought were interesting:

In this arrangement of the duties of life, Heaven has appointed to one sex the superior and to the other the subordinate station...but while woman holds a subordinate relation in society to the other sex, it is not because it was designed that her duties or her influence should be any the less important, or all pervading."

Beecher really gets the idea that men and women are entirely different and, as such, hold different (but still important!) roles in a relationship. She goes on to show how pretty much all of society runs on someone being in a dominant position and someone being submissive (ex. an employee/employer situation, teacher/student, ruler/subject) and that's just how things work best.

I apologize in advance for the block of text below, I just thought everything was so spot on that it should all be included.

Woman is to win every thing by peace and love; by making herself so much respected, esteemed and loved, that to yield to her opinions and to gratify her wishes, will be the free-will offering of the heart. But this is to be all accomplished in the domestic and social circle. There let every women become so cultivated and refined in intellect, that her taste and judgment will be respected; so benevolent in feeling and action; that her motives will be reverenced;—so unassuming and unambitious, that collision and competition will be banished;—so “gentle and easy to be entreated,” as that every heart will repose in her presence; then, the fathers, the husbands, and the sons, will find an influence thrown around them, to which they will yield not only willingly but proudly. . . . But the moment woman begins to feel the promptings of ambition, or the thirst for power, her aegis of defense is gone.

Oh my goodness, I just thought she completely summed up the power of femininity. Men want to help and love the woman who's sweet and kind and gentle. They would happily go out of their way to make her smile because she is not entitled or assuming. Being feminine isn't being weak!!! I just wish more people understood this!

Ideas like these just make me realize that even if something is old (the essay was written in 1837), it doesn't necessarily mean its out-dated or irrelevant! This doesn't mean that women need to only stay at home like they did in the past, but that we should try to learn from history and make note of the things that worked then because they really could be useful in our daily lives. These things tend to stick and stay around for a reason :)