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No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship
This pioneering study redefines women's history in the United States by focusing on civic obligations rather than rights. Looking closely at thirty telling cases from the pages of American legal history, Kerber's analysis reaches from the Revolution, when married women did not have the same obligation as their husbands to be "patriots," up to the present, when men and women, regardless of their marital status, still have different obligations to serve in the Armed Forces.
An original and compelling consideration of American law and culture, No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies emphasizes the dangers of excluding women from other civic responsibilities as well, such as loyalty oaths and jury duty. Exploring the lives of the plaintiffs, the strategies of the lawyers, and the decisions of the courts, Kerber offers readers a convincing argument for equal treatment under the law.
An original and compelling consideration of American law and culture, No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies emphasizes the dangers of excluding women from other civic responsibilities as well, such as loyalty oaths and jury duty. Exploring the lives of the plaintiffs, the strategies of the lawyers, and the decisions of the courts, Kerber offers readers a convincing argument for equal treatment under the law.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Linda K. Kerber
26Ìýbooks18ÌýfollowersLinda Kerber is a professor of History and Law at the University of Iowa.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 17, 2019
When Sarah Jay, John Jay's wife, was drafting the toasts that would celebrate the American Revolution in Paris, one of her toasts was "May all our Citizens be Soldiers, and all our Soldiers Citizens." (236). Given that at the time, women could almost never be soldiers, that seemed to suggest that they could not be citizens either. And later legal development certainly suggested that women's citizenship could be lost by the conduct of their husbands.
Kerber brings out some of the usually-suppressed strains in the Whig myth* of increasing freedom and dignity for all. She explores how women's freedom from obligations, particularly from the military and jury service, was tied up with women's lack of autonomy before the law.
From this book I learned that the constitutions of nine of the original thirteen states articulated the duty of the citizen to serve and the power of the state to compel him to do so. (242). Since women had not duty to serve they were also, in a deep sense, not citizens.
The book takes its title from testimony given by Eagle Forum member Kathleen Teague before the House Armed Services Committee on the subject of whether women would be subject to the draft. Seems she said that "'The right to be treated like ladies' . . . is a right 'which every American woman has enjoyed since our country was born.'" xxiv. This book examines the unspoken premise there, that women do not have direct obligations to the State but merely to their families. A premise that, in 1789, was largely law. The consequence was, in almost every way, that women lacked autonomy and dignity before the law.
*"When I began to write this book, I expected that I would find the succeeding generations brought successive issues to closure; that the fragility of women's independent citizenship in the early republic would be resolved by the married women's property acts of the mid-nineteenth century . . . . The story I have told is not what historians once called 'Whig history': a single narrative of progress from the era of the Revolution to the present. Instead, it is a set of complex accounts, often circling on themselves, in which we are challenged to be attentive to the relationship between obligation and rights, and through which we can understand that women, like men, have always been part of the national political culture. We cannot embrace the rights without acknowledging the obligations, Nor do we have the option of limiting ourselves to the voluntarily embraced duties; there waits a steel hand in a velvet glove to enforce obligations." (308).
Kerber brings out some of the usually-suppressed strains in the Whig myth* of increasing freedom and dignity for all. She explores how women's freedom from obligations, particularly from the military and jury service, was tied up with women's lack of autonomy before the law.
From this book I learned that the constitutions of nine of the original thirteen states articulated the duty of the citizen to serve and the power of the state to compel him to do so. (242). Since women had not duty to serve they were also, in a deep sense, not citizens.
The book takes its title from testimony given by Eagle Forum member Kathleen Teague before the House Armed Services Committee on the subject of whether women would be subject to the draft. Seems she said that "'The right to be treated like ladies' . . . is a right 'which every American woman has enjoyed since our country was born.'" xxiv. This book examines the unspoken premise there, that women do not have direct obligations to the State but merely to their families. A premise that, in 1789, was largely law. The consequence was, in almost every way, that women lacked autonomy and dignity before the law.
*"When I began to write this book, I expected that I would find the succeeding generations brought successive issues to closure; that the fragility of women's independent citizenship in the early republic would be resolved by the married women's property acts of the mid-nineteenth century . . . . The story I have told is not what historians once called 'Whig history': a single narrative of progress from the era of the Revolution to the present. Instead, it is a set of complex accounts, often circling on themselves, in which we are challenged to be attentive to the relationship between obligation and rights, and through which we can understand that women, like men, have always been part of the national political culture. We cannot embrace the rights without acknowledging the obligations, Nor do we have the option of limiting ourselves to the voluntarily embraced duties; there waits a steel hand in a velvet glove to enforce obligations." (308).
June 30, 2014
A complex and nuanced look at the relationship between the rights and obligations of citizenship and the way that gender (and to some extent race) has impacted the relationship. Kerber clearly shows that these issues have not been resolved but are still being debated today.
November 25, 2011
An amazing and eye-opening book featuring several actual court cases that shaped women's history from the revolutionary period to the 1970s. Highly readable and insightful.
November 15, 2024
Kerber, a well-respected historian, makes what should be an obvious point: women are citizens, just like men, and they should share all the rights and obligations of citizenship.
She disputes, in compelling detail, that women have a constitutional right “to be ladies� when that is conceived as separating them from a complete status as functioning citizens who are the constitutional equals of men (even the ones they’ve married!).
In my mind, it’s not a “feminist� thing or a “suffrage� thing. It’s a matter-of-fact thing—nothing about it doesn’t make sense.
Read more of my book reviews and poems here:
She disputes, in compelling detail, that women have a constitutional right “to be ladies� when that is conceived as separating them from a complete status as functioning citizens who are the constitutional equals of men (even the ones they’ve married!).
In my mind, it’s not a “feminist� thing or a “suffrage� thing. It’s a matter-of-fact thing—nothing about it doesn’t make sense.
Read more of my book reviews and poems here:
May 13, 2014
This is a wonderful book, and should be of great interest to all those who think about the equality of women and men. Linda Kerber addresses the meaning of citizenship, and how citizen's obligations to the United States have been linked to gender and been understood over time.
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September 30, 2015Kerber flips the history of "women's rights" on its head - looking at the history of women's obligations as citizens, and the conflict between women who want formal equality and women who want "special" protection.
November 3, 2012
Great perspective, albeit a slow read. Depressing with the redundant actions restricting women's freedoms.
July 27, 2013
A must read for everyone to understand women's role and rights in American society
February 25, 2016
A fascinating look at how women have been treated as under fewer obligations to the state throughout US history.
September 22, 2007
Every American woman should read this book.
April 9, 2017
This is a book you should read for the important information in it. It's not well written. The first half reads like a thesis which it was in the beginning. However, it is well and thoroughly researched. The story of women's rights and mostly lack of them is painstakingly told with multiple references to cases throughout the history of the United States. I was shocked to realize how disgracefully women have been treated under the law. I still am when I think of it. Those of us who grew up with the right to vote and whose mothers voted regularly (and my mother refused to tell my father how she voted) have a hard time reckoning with the quite recent past for women in the U.S. I complained the whole time I was reading it, but I may read it again. I admire the women who stood up for themselves as land owners in the 19th century and actually won the right to vote in local elections. Recently I read some American documents, including Lincoln's inaugural addresses and some period legislation. It's hard to read them and realize that when these men referred to the rights of citizens, they did not mean people like me - women.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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