A Woman's Individualism
I believe in a woman’s right to individualism. The right to make her own decisions. The right to act in her own self interest.
What is individualism?
Individualism is the principle of “being independent and self-reliant.” Or a “social theory favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control.”
America is founded on individualism. The Creator gives unalienable rights to individuals. Individuals formed a government to ensure those rights. To protect individuals from the tyranny of either a monarch or the majority from taking those rights away, the people of the United States created a Constitution and Bill of Rights outlining rights inherent to individual Americans. Those documents, and our system of government, exist to ensure the rights of individuals.
The design of our people’s government makes it difficult to take those rights away from individuals. If the government could take away the unalienable rights of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, we would have new forms of tyranny every time the political party in power changed hands.
Individualism doesn’t mean we can’t care for each other, or take care of each other. It doesn’t mean we can’t collectively combine our resources to build bridges and roads, and defend the nation.
Individualism does mean we are free to choose our own path in life. This is a uniquely American character.
Inherent in choosing our own path in life is the need to act in our own self interest. If one is denied the right to choose their own path, that is tyranny. If one is able to choose their own path, but denied the ability to act in their own self interest, that is futility.
The rights of individualism are our basic rights. They include the right to vote, to make our own healthcare decisions, to speak out against tyranny, to defend ourselves, and others. These are rights inherent to our need to act in our own self interest.
Enough with the theory. Let’s get the knife to the bone.
Does a woman have a right to individualism? The right to act in her own self interest?
How about some context.
It took 144 years for the nation to grant women the right to vote in their own self-interest. Even after introducing the right for women to vote in Congress (1878), it took still another 42 years (1920) for the nation to pass and ratify the amendment. One hundred years later, nearly 50% of Americans believe women achieving the right to vote has been our most impactful gender equality improvement.
Since we adopted and ratified this 19th Amendment, do women now have the right to individualism? The right to act in their own self interest?
Some more context.
49 years passed between the US Supreme Court decisions Roe vs Wade and Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Following the reversal of protection from government knowledge of healthcare choices, many states took away the right of women to make their own healthcare decisions. As of January 2023, 12 states took away this right, with an additional 12 states in litigation or debate. In the 49 years of Roe vs Wade, no political party codified a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions in law or Constitutional Amendment. Was that lack of action a result of parties not wanting to expend the political capital to solidify the right of a woman to make her own healthcare decisions? Since the 2022 decision overturning Roe vs Wade, neither party has tried to burn the world down to weigh in on the side of individualism of women. Is it because we don’t believe women have the right to individualism?
Elizabeth Cady Stanton enlightened the US Congress in 1892 on the subject of a woman’s individualism in her address, “Solitude of Self.” Early on she introduced a woman’s need for individualism:
In discussing the rights of woman, we are to consider, first, what belongs to her as an individual, in a world of her own, the arbiter of her own destiny, an imaginary Robinson Crusoe with her woman Friday on a solitary island. Her rights under such circumstances are to use all her faculties for her own safety and happiness.
But deep into her address Ms. Stanton really got to the heart of the matter. She addressed the premise: can a woman reject individualism?
Whatever the theories may be of woman's dependence on man, in the supreme moments of her life he can not bear her burdens. Alone she goes to the gates of death to give life to every man that is born into the world. No one can share her fears, on one mitigate her pangs; and if her sorrow is greater than she can bear, alone she passes beyond the gates into the vast unknown.
Women have no choice but to embrace individualism. To act in their own self interest.
If a woman decides to seek additional education, who is there to hold her hand, put in the work, and pay for it?
If a woman decides to remain married for 65 years, isn’t it because she chose to be committed to her choice?
If a woman chooses to remain single throughout her life, who should provide for her? Isn’t it her duty to provide for herself?
If a woman faces violence, whose responsibility is it to defend her, if not her own? Is the State ready to take care of her? Surely the State wouldn’t refuse to respond to a call for help, such as the violation of a restraining order?
If a woman’s life is threatened during pregnancy, who would decide to save first the life of the living? Surely the State would recognize her American right to individualism and respect her decision to preserve her own life?
If a woman decides to have a baby after being abandoned by the father, whose responsibility is it to love and provide for the child? Would the State provide the means for her to give the child a healthy, educated upbringing? Or would the State require the father to provide means for the child?
We could go on and on. Of course the answer to these questions is the woman is largely on her own. She is responsible for her decisions and her destiny.
Because she is responsible for her own decisions, she must embrace individualism.
I believe in a woman’s right to individualism. The right to make her own decisions. The right to act in her own self interest.
I believe this because I believe mankind was created equal, male and female.
I believe this because women have no choice but to choose individualism, and make the decisions appropriate for their own self interest.
I believe this because women make decisions about others, such as preserving the life of a child, that they believe are in their own or the child’s self interest, but I don’t have the inherent right or ability to make that choice for them. In the words of Ms. Stanton, I can not bear her burdens.
Others will disagree. They will weigh in with their opinions.
Those don’t matter. “Views of others” is a violation of the inherent American principle of individualism. Individualism is freedom of action in the face of collective or state control. Our rights are protected because they are objectionable.
I believe in America, and I believe women have the right to individualism.
May God bless the United States of America.
