In his investigation of American society in the early 1800s, Alexis de Tocqueville spares a few chapters to describe the American woman as he sees her. Of course, from our more modern perspective, Tocqueville's claim that women and men in America enjoy a certain equality clashes with the reality of conditions at the time, and Tocqueville cannot provide sufficient evidence to convince us of the opposite. More interesting, however, is the parallel between the “small society of husband and wife” and the “large political society” (574) he describes. Starting from this, we can see that the need to implement a particular type of education for democracy parallels Tocqueville's description of the education of the American woman. Even more noteworthy is that the situation of the American woman parallels the tyranny of the majority – or the mild despotism that Tocqueville describes as a fearful possibility of democracy. That said, Tocqueville is remarkably inconsistent in his views regarding despotism as applied to women. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Tocqueville's argument that women enjoy a certain equality with men is hardly convincing, especially given the lack of supporting evidence. In America, he argues, women and men enjoy equal respect but in different spheres, to better facilitate the management of society. Women are not praised, but “they are esteemed” (575). Women can “prove themselves men in mind and heart” (574), and men respect their courage and independence. Americans have “elevated woman with all their power to the level of man in the intellectual and moral world” (576). That is to say, women are just as smart and good as men. However, these principles fail to challenge traditional structures of “marital power.” Tocqueville writes that «the natural head of the conjugal association is the man. Americans therefore do not deny him the right to direct his spouse; and they believe that in the small society of husband and wife, as in the large political society, the goal of democracy is to regulate and legitimize necessary powers, not to destroy all power” (574). Therefore, while women live under the “natural” guardianship of their husbands, accepting an argument for gender equality is difficult. The example that Tocqueville provides of the esteem and respect of women in America is the fact that rape is punished by death. In Europe, rapists are often subjected to lighter sentences or not convicted at all, which, she argues, is indicative of Europeans' lack of respect for women. However, punishing rape with death does not necessarily equate to respecting the law. a woman's honor and independence; it may well be respect for her as the property of her husband or father to respect their chastity and to have faith in their strength is in its way a kind of prison. This kind of esteem or respect can be a daily reminder of what a woman would lose if she made a misstep: "public opinion is inexorable towards her faults" (569). Comparing the fate of the American woman in her "little society" with Tocqueville's description of the "political society" of American democracy brings to light an interesting parallel: the need for democratic education for democratic habits to be sustainable. For a democracy to be politically successful, its citizens must be educated democratically. In Tocqueville's description of American society and the American woman, democratic education does notit is less necessary. In the first volume, Tocqueville makes the striking and pertinent observation that “The states in which the citizens have enjoyed their rights longest are those in which they know best how to make use of them. It cannot be said enough: there is nothing more prolific in the wonders of art than being free; But there is nothing more difficult than the apprenticeship of freedom” (229). Freedom is sweeter when you have had it for longer, precisely because you know how to use it and don't run away from it madly. In the custom of marriage Tocqueville makes a similar reasoning. In defending the free choice of spouses to aristocratic European readers accustomed to arranged marriages, Tocqueville observes that when European men and women marry for love, "one cannot be surprised that they misuse their free will the first time they do so." they use. , nor that they fall into such cruel errors when they want to follow the customs of democracy in marriage, without having received a democratic education." (570). Therefore, American women who have had democratic upbringings know how to properly exercise their free will and will choose their mates appropriately. Tocqueville's observation that the longer people are democratic, the more successful their democracy becomes, raises the question of how democracy (politically or socially) could ever be possible in Europe, with its long tradition of monarchy. Tocqueville does not offer a satisfactory answer, admitting instead that, while America provides an interesting example and case study, he himself is “very far from believing that we should follow the example which American democracy has set and imitate the means used". achieve this goal through his efforts” (302). Democracy must grow slowly. Even more troubling than this vague roadmap to democracy is the stark inconsistency in Tocqueville's views towards women and political society. In political society, Tocqueville fears the possibility of tyranny, but in the “small society” of husband and wife he accepts it without censure. Tocqueville's greatest fear of a democratic state is the mild despotism he describes towards the end of his work. Despotism is especially dangerous in democracy since there “what is arbitrary does not appear scary” (197). Because magistrates and political figures are supposedly elected and accountable to the common people, their power is not as fearsome as it would be in a monarchical state. Thus, in America “magistrates can post the names of drunkards in taverns and prevent the inhabitants from supplying them with wine under penalty of fine” (197), a serious intrusion into individual private life that Tocqueville implies would be unthinkable in France. Furthermore, he describes how by reconciling “the need to be guided and the desire to remain free,” people would choose and create a unique and omnipotent tutelary power, then “they would console themselves with being protected by thinking that they themselves had chosen their own power.” school teachers” (664). However, this protection is no less powerful because it is supposedly chosen by the people, and Tocqueville fears that his oppression would therefore be even more tolerated. The situation of the American woman is surprisingly similar, although Tocqueville praises rather than censures her situation. Once women get married, their freedom is inevitably limited. Women are expected to "self-sacrifice and continually sacrifice their pleasures to business, which is rare to expect from them in Europe" (565). Furthermore, no one is sympathetic to his sacrifices. The woman chose her husband of her own free will, and «In a country where the woman always freely exercises her choice, and where education has put her in., 2002.