Sarah Margaret Fuller
• 1810-1850
• Transcendentalist
• Writer, The Dial
Sarah Margaret Fuller
• “What woman needs….is not as
woman to act or rule, but as a
nature to grow, as an intellect to
discern, as a soul to live freely,
and unimpeded to unfold such
powers as were given her when
we left our common home.”
From the 1820’s to 1920
1970
Sarah Margaret Fuller
• “It should be remarked that, as the
principle of liberty is better understood,
and more nobly interpreted, a broader
protest is made in behalf of women”
(Heath, p. 1698).
• “You are not the head of your wife. God
has given her a mind of her own” (Heath,
p. 1701).
Sarah Margaret Fuller
• Mankind is ripe for this, when inward and
outward freedom for Woman as much as
for Man shall be acknowledged a right, not
yielded as a concession” (Heath, p.
1705).
• “Man partakes of the feminine in the
Apollo, Woman of the masculine as
Minerva” (Heath, p. 1711).
Symbolic Protest?
Dr. Laura Schlesinger: The Proper Care &
Feeding of Husbands (2004).
Sarah Margaret Fuller
• “I think women need, especially at this
juncture, a much greater range of
occupation than they have, to rouse their
latent powers” ( Heath, pp. 1716).
• “I believe that, at present, women are the
best helpers of one another.
• Let them think, let them act; till they know
what they need” (Heath, p. 1715).