Men, Paternalism, and Hypocrisy Theme Analysis

Throughout her speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” Sojourner Truth repeatedly calls attention to the tension, paternalism, and hypocrisy that defined relations between men and women in the mid-19th century in the United States. Men of the time claimed that women were too dull, fragile, or inexperienced to have roles in the public sphere or have access to suffrage (the right to vote). But throughout her groundbreaking speech, Truth called out men’s hypocritical treatment of women, highlighting the immense burdens and grief that women—especially Black women—were expected to bear quietly and gracefully. Truth argued that men of her era were hypocrites whose idea were baseless when it came to their smallminded, patronizing ideals about what women were capable of.

Early on in her speech, Truth points out the selfishness and paternalism of men who claim that women should “have the best” while doing very little to help women achieve equal rights. Between Black people in the South fighting for equality and women in the North seeking the same thing, Truth comically predicts in the first lines of her speech that white men across the U.S. will soon find themselves “in a fix.” Here, she’s pointing out the changing social organization of the U.S. and suggesting to her audience that white men aren’t fully invested in the women’s rights movement. Not only are they not fully on board—they’re vexed by the idea that women could soon share their social spaces and have the same rights that they do.

These same men, Truth goes onto suggest, say that women should be helped into their carriages, carried over muddy ditches, and given “the best place everywhere.” Here, she’s suggesting that men want to infantilize women and treat them like they can’t handle the world. They do this, she’s suggesting, to imply that women cannot in fact handle the public sphere and the responsibilities that come with it. They don’t actually want women to have the “best” of everything—they want to keep women sheltered and sequestered from mainstream society. But Truth points out that “nobody ever helps [her] into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives [her] any best place”. By calling attention to how she isn’t treated like other women—namely, like white women—Truth is further illustrating how men aren’t actually invested in women securing rights. They especially don’t want Black women (or Black men, for that matter) to encroach on their social territory and undermine the superiority they’ve enjoyed in American society for so long.

Truth then underscores the harsh realities of enslavement, loss, grief, and/or solitude that women must suffer while the men around them do little to aid in their plight. Men have no problem helping women step over mud-puddles on the street—but when it comes to the cause of women’s rights or abolition, they’re not willing to do much to help. Truth describes her traumatic experiences as a formerly enslaved woman, detailing the brutal labor, painful whippings, and emotional losses she suffered under slavery. “And ain’t I a woman?” Truth asks after detailing each trauma. Here, she’s saying that she’s a woman, too—and that if men were actually invested in helping women, they wouldn’t just be lifting them over puddles. Women all over the U.S., Truth implies, are suffering grievous losses and unbearable abuse every day—but men, through their silence and inaction, allow women to endure these things. In Truth’s view, men are not just selfish or paternalistic, but hypocritical as well. They claim to want to help give women the best of everything—but they ignore the everyday suffering that women all over their country are going through. If men really wanted to help, she’s suggesting, they’d use their social power to do something to advance the cause of equal rights for all women.

By pointing out the hypocrisy, paternalism, and inaction of the men around her, Truth suggests that men know nothing about (and care very little for) the women whose fates they seek to determine. All women are asking, Truth states, is for men to “let them” put the world “right side up” by ensuring equal rights for all. But men won’t even grant women their attention or help—instead, they’re forcing women to struggle and suffer as the long fight for equal rights marches on. Not only are men uninvested in the rights of women, Truth suggests—white men in the U.S. actively don’t want women and Black people to secure the same rights that they enjoy. Truth implies that white men in the U.S. feel there isn’t enough power to go around. Even though they possess a metaphorical “quart” of power when women and Black people just want a “pint,” men feel that any lessening of their own share of power is a threat. By highlighting men’s reticence to invest in the women’s rights movement, Sojourner Truth is pointing out how men maintain their power through hypocrisy, paternalism, and feigned ignorance of the struggles that women and Black people face every day.