In the mid-eighteenth century, it was believed that men's and women's natural abilities in

society were set in two different spheres. Women's role was known as being part of the private
sphere more precisely the Domestic sphere. They were 'the light of the home' and the moral leader
of the home which means that they had to create, as wives and as mothers, a refuge for their
husbands and for their children. Even though the United States were facing a period of changes in
its expansion, its social and economic development and in its politics as well, women were still
considered as physically, morally and socially weaker than men. As a result, those strong
inequalities and injustices led some women to start to stand for their own rights and start a fight for
their emancipation and improve their political positions.
There were not only women implicated into that struggle for suffrage but men, such as
Samuel J May 'pastor of churches in Brooklyn, Connecticut and at South Scituate, Massachusetts'
and 'one of the greatest social and educational reformers of the nineteenth century'. He illustrated
his ideas concerning women's status in the American society in a sermon The Rights and The
Condition of Women in the Church of Messiah, Syracuse, New York ,1846.
In this text, Samuel J May denounces the ethical and moral issues between women and men,
and preach equity between them.
His pugnacity and the structure of his arguments will make us deal with : How does Samuel
J May convey the audience that women's rights are natural rights ?

In his sermon, Samuel J May does not only denounce the social and moral inequalities
between men and women, he asks why half of the people have the right to govern the whole .
His religious point of view leads him to critisize the illegitimacy of mens laws before law of nature.
His ideas inspired proeminent figures of the womens right movement such as Elizabeth Cady
Stantons 1848 Declaration of Sentiments .
Throughout his sermon, Samuel J May proclaims that gender equality was biased during the
Victorian era.
Even though, at that time, Women were socially discreditated by men using the arguments
weaker , vessel , inferior in stature (l.2)
May takes civilization and religion as a basis for his critic of the rules and morals instilled by men
to oppress women.
In the eyes of May, men are against the religious values taught by Christianity and have ideas based
on ancient morals which are not relevant in our modern society.
Indeed the fact that men think of women as a weaker vessel is against Gods will since the latter
created men and women as equal beings, and he even made them complementary of each other,
which means that we need both the qualities of men and women to make society move forward.
This idea is closely related to the Victorian ideology of Separate spheres, since men are the only
ones allowed to work at the government for example. May states that if women were able to work
alongside men at the government, the combination of both qualities of men and women would
benefit the entire country, ensuring America a brighter future.
On a religious point of view, moral and mental capabilities were always favored by God, thus the
fact than men boasted to have more physical strength than women and claiming to be superior to
them because of that brute force is going against Christianity values, which makes this argument
completely ludicrous in such a religious country.
Again, laws made by men against women are an offense to God, indeed, there is what is called in
the Bible the great precept of Nature, which declares: That man shall pursue his own true and
substantial happiness, this rule was made by God himself, thus, this rule is de facto superior to any

rule or law made by human beings, therefore, the laws made by men are null because they hinder
this great precept of Nature. And if we look a little more into this precept, we see shall pursue,
this gives a very legitimate reason for women to fight for equality -which will lead to their
happiness- because it is God's will.