Lucifer’s Demand – Moses Harman, 1891

Republished from our predecessor publication Lucifer the Light Bearer

1st. We demand the absolute and unconditional recognition and
practicalization of Woman’s right to the ownership and control of her person.

2nd. We demand the absolute and unconditional recognition and
practicalization of Woman’s right to the ownership and control of her children.

3rd. We demand the absolute and unconditional recognition and
practicalization of Woman’s right to the ownership and control of her earnings.

The first of these demands includes and implies the right of woman to the ownership and control of her home
—at least to the extent of ownership of her private room and bed; for without the right to exclude whomsoever
she chooses from these, she cannot be the owner of her person. The second of these demands makes woman
the head of the family, whether that family be individualistic or communal. It denies to man his hitherto assumed
and usurped right of parental authority—this denial being based upon nature’s denial to man of the power to bear,
and therefore to own, children. The third of these demands implies and includes the right of woman to equal pay
with man for equally productive labor. It also involves, implies, and includes the abolition of all monopolies of the
means or resources of nature (including art) whereby labor becomes productive or profitable. Our third demand
for women can therefore be said to be tantamount to demanding the destruction of all monopolies in land, mines, and
other resources of nature—also all monopolies in, or restrictions upon, the distribution or exchange of the products
of labor, including tariffs, privileges, or discriminations against or for any kind of commodities, such as railways
and circulating mediums. In fine, the practicalization and realization of our three demands for woman involve,
include, and necessitate the abolition of all class laws, which means nearly all past legislation. The practicalization
and realization of our demands for woman include, imply, and necessitate the emancipation of labor—of man
as well as woman. The practicalization and realization of these fundamental demands imply and necessitate
the right of universal liberty, which is simply another way of saying Universal Justice, Universal Peace, Universal
Fraternity, and, so far as terrestrial limitations will permit, UNIVERSAL HAPPINESS! To show how these demands
are to be practicalized and realized, and how all the results herein claimed will naturally, logically, and peacefully
follow as necessary sequents upon the first and pivotal demand of and for self-ownership of woman, this is and
will be the chief, if not the sole, object and aim of the publication called LUCIFER, THE LIGHT-BEARER.