"Man is, or should be, woman's protector and defender. The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life."
--Justice Bradley, US Supreme Court
Although psychologists support women in their efforts to attain full equality with men, women have faced many barriers. The quote below from the US Supreme Court provides insight into the view of a powerful man who, along with other law makers and judges, affirmed a barrier to a woman who sought to obtain a license to practice law. In the opinion, the justice describes the nature of women, the role of men in regard to women, and closes with an appeal to a higher law--"the law of the creator."
A Woman’s Role
Mrs. Myra Bradwell, residing in the State of Illinois, made application to the judges of the Supreme Court of that state for a license to practice law. She was denied a license. The ruling of the US Supreme Court can be found online (see below). This excerpt provides one perspective on the view of women in the US, which is informed by an interpretation of the Bible.
Bradwell v. The State, 83 U.S. 130 (1872)
Page 83 U.S. 141
From the opinion of Justice Bradley (Bold emphasis added)
It certainly cannot be affirmed, as an historical fact, that this has ever been established as one of the fundamental privileges and immunities of the sex. On the contrary, the civil law, as well as nature herself, has always recognized a wide difference in the respective spheres and destinies of man and woman. Man is, or should be, woman's protector and defender. The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life. The Constitution of the family organization, which is founded in the divine ordinance as well as in the nature of things, indicates the domestic sphere as that which properly belongs to the domain and functions of womanhood. The harmony, not to say identity, of interest and views which belong, or should belong, to the family institution is repugnant to the idea of a woman adopting a distinct and independent career from that of her husband. So firmly fixed was this sentiment in the founders of the common law that it became a maxim of that system of jurisprudence that a woman had no legal existence separate from her husband, who was regarded as her head and representative in the social state, and, notwithstanding some recent modifications of this civil status, many of the special rules of law flowing from and dependent upon this cardinal principle still exist in full force in most states. One of these is that a married woman is incapable, without her husband's consent, of making contracts which shall be binding on her or him. This very incapacity was one circumstance which the Supreme Court of Illinois deemed important in rendering a married woman incompetent fully to perform the duties and trusts that belong to the office of an attorney and counselor.
It is true that many women are unmarried and not affected by any of the duties, complications, and incapacities arising out of the married state, but these are exceptions to the general rule. The paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator. And the rules of civil society.
Reference
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/83/130/#:~:text=U.S.%20Supreme%20Court,-Bradwell%20v.&text=1.,provision%20of%20the%20federal%20Constitution.
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