Philosophy

Polygamous marriages have been perceived with a negative eye by some groups of people particularly Christians. The Christians, who have the Holy Bible as their guide, support a monogamous marriage as rightful for man. Muslims however recommend that a man marries a maximum of four women as long as he can manage economically. The paper examines some of the ways Elizabeth Joseph, a woman married to a man as a seventh wife of the nine wives. She supports polygamous marriage and maintains that polygamy is good feminism.

It is time women to stop suffering as human sacrifices in the world of a monogamous marriage. There is a significant happiness in a polygamous marriage in the side of women. The works of Elizabeth Joseph has come to be identified and acknowledged which appreciate that polygamy has a myriad of benefits over a monogamous marriage. According to Elizabeth, polygamy increases the access to reproduction as well as marginalizing the males who should never reproduce. Among the Mormons, Elizabeth comments positively about polygamy borrowing from the perspective of Schopenhauer who favored polygamy with passion.

In a polygamous society, the needs of all women are well provided for contrary to a monogamous marriage which takes care of only a selected group of women. While monogamous societies provide a decent life to a few select numbers of women, polygamous marriages seem to generally provide and satisfy all women in a society. This is the reason why Elizabeth claims to support polygamy as the best option for feminism.

Mrs. Joseph, the number seven wife in a plural marriage of nine argued that polygamy was preferably good feminism. In her argument, she defends that a woman does not just need any husband rather, any husband she gets, as long as he is the best husband with the marital status at the time not withstanding. This then means that a woman can be married to a man even if the man is already married to another woman.

Elizabeth makes clear some key points that lead to her support of polygamous marriage. She points out that polygamy promote careers for women as well as providing outstanding daycare for the children. Polygamy removes the debts in sexual marriage that may be typical in monogamous marriages and the toil of every day tasks. In addition, Elizabeth provides that polygamy is a viable alternative to mistresses, prostitutes, divorces and the birth of illegitimate children who may lack proper parental care.