AP US History · Contextualization
Which development from 1780 to 1820 would best support a historian arguing that Murray was challenging a durable feature of women’s legal…
Judith Sargent Murray, 1790
In an essay published in 1790, Murray argued that observed differences in men’s and women’s intellectual achievement reflected unequal education, not unequal natural capacity. Boys, she argued, were encouraged toward study and public ambition, while girls were confined to domestic instruction. Women could not fairly be judged intellectually inferior when they had been denied comparable opportunities to learn.
Adapted from Judith Sargent Murray, “On the Equality of the Sexes,” Massachusetts Magazine, 1790.
Which development from 1780 to 1820 would best support a historian arguing that Murray was challenging a durable feature of women’s legal status?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A: Married women generally remained subject to coverture, which limited an independent legal identity and control of property
To show Murray challenged a durable feature of women's legal status, a historian needs evidence of a lasting legal disability. Coverture, under which married women lacked an independent legal identity and control of property, persisted through the early republic, so A is strongest. Choice B is tempting but describes education framed by family and civic duty, not legal status. Choice C shows growing opportunity for some women, which is not a legal limit. Choice D concerns a limited voting exception that ended in 1807, not a broad, enduring disability.
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