In July 1843, Margaret Fuller's controversial essay "The Great Lawsuit: Man versus Men. Woman versus Women," appeared in The Dial, a transcendentalist magazine which Fuller edited from 1840 through 1842. This is one of the most gravely neglected documents of American feminism. "The Great Lawsuit" works to stimulate thinking on the possibilities of Woman by demonstrating that a woman could write argumentative compositions and perform these formally masculine "scripts" (perhaps as a lawyer performing a closing statement), that women had helped to further Western civilization and were crucial to the realization of its zenith in American political culture, and that "femality" (1622) was not only an androgynous aspect of humanity but was also in fact the agent of genius.
             The title should prepare the reader to put off habitual thinking and be an impartial judge in the civic case. Fuller's performance of the authoritative civic rhetoric, which usually would be used by men in a court room setting, illuminates common misogynistic thinking. The very idea of a woman in the public sphere was ludicrous and considered impossible. By citing powerful male civic traditions, Fuller gained the legitimacy necessary to assert that Woman is equal to Man. She also promotes gender equality as the reparation of American ideals and institutions.
             The lawsuits of the essay's title are between the ideal and reality of Man and men, Woman and women. Man is entitled to equality and freedom, both of which have been taken away by men, the "pygmies" who dwell in the wilderness of selfishness and erroneously claim Man's priviledge. There would be moments of progress, moments in which men's convictions surged, but each was transient, and man is "still kept out of his inheritance, still a pleader, still a pilgrim."(1594)
             "The Great Lawsuit" sought the redress of injuries done to Man and W...