Margaret Fuller

Personal Statement:

• My name is Margaret Fuller, and I was born on May 23, 1810 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At a young age, my father, determined to give me a proper “boys education”, began teaching me how to read and write and continued to be my teacher until he got elected as a representative in Congress in 1817. I began my formal education at the Port School in Cambridge in 1819, and then continued my education at the Boston Lyceum for Young Ladies from 1821 to 1822. To fulfil my aunts and uncles wishes, I attended the School for Young Ladies in Groton for two years, until I realized I did not fit in with young woman my age and decided to go home at the age of 16 and teach myself. Early on in life I realized that the one thing I loved to do was read. I earned my reputation as best-read person, male or female, in New England, and was the first woman allowed to use the library at Harvard College. I delivered private lessons, and made my keep through journalism and translation. In November of 1839, I began overseeing what I like to call “conversations” with local woman in Boston, centered to make up for lack of women's education with discussions and debates on specific topics. I sought to answer great questions facing womankind, and had significant figures from the women’s rights movements attend my conversations. I was known as an important figure in the transcendental movement, due to my job as the editor of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s The Dial. Soon after, I wrote the first book on American feminism named Woman in the Nineteenth Century. I became a well known literary critic and the first full time book-reviewer in American Journalism.
  
  
  

Issue:

• I was a very strong proponent of feminism and women's rights. The source of my motivation, mainly, was women's education and right to employment. I believe that woman should be provided a proper education and equal political rights. They should also be able to seek any type of employment they want and not succumb to the “feminine” roles, such as caregiver or teacher.

Solution:

• Giving my best effort to support feminism and help the woman in my country achieve a better lifestyle, I started overseeing what I like to call “conversations” with woman in my community. These conversations were focused on making up for the lack of education among women by discussing and debating on a wide variety of topics. In these meeting, I wanted to answer the great questions facing womankind and help them get a better future.
• I have been very successful in spreading my opinion and knowledge on this topic. The “conversations” helped women achieve a more well rounded education on certain topics, and I also was a great literary critic and book-reviewer, so I got to show the world my opinion on my favorite topics. Aside from being a reviewer and journalist, I also wrote the first book on American Feminism and set a trend for many women's activists to come.
• While trying to spread my knowledge and position on this certain topic, I faced many challenges. From being taught a “boys education” from my father, my father's death making my abandon many of my ideas in order to travel back home and care for my family, poor salary, and physical sickness among others.

Relationship to others:

Comfortable- Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horace Greeley.

Not Comfortable- Anyone who opposed feminism and transcendentalism