LAMENTING THE LOSS OF A WOMAN‐CENTERED POLITY: MERCY WARREN'S CRITIQUE OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

Abstract

Mercy Otis Warren was the only known female anti‐federalist writer of the founding era in American politics; and, according to Herbert Storing, she was the most philosophically sophisticated of all the anti‐federalist writers. While much work has been done to highlight her anti‐federalism, her theory of gender remains to be uncovered. In this article I argue that Warren's vision of woman citizenship was that of the married republican mother, which she believed would be threatened by the Constitution. I argue that Warren opposed the Federalist Constitution because it destroyed the preconditions for a female‐centered polity that she imagined republicanism ideally to be. Warren's feminist critique of the Constitution was not mentioned directly in her anti‐federalist pamphlet. This is not surprising because, according to contemporary moral standards, women were not supposed to engage in political discussions, much less those that appeared to show self‐interest. Part of her philosophical sophistication was necessary, I argue, to hide her concern for gender relations. By focusing on the foundational level of federalism as a degradation of virtue and male citizenship, Warren was able to criticize Federalism without mentioning its degradation of female citizenship. Yet in her private correspondence it is clear she believed that the political contributions of women would be severely limited by Federalist politics.