A Vindication Of Rights Of Women By Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft was a pioneer in feminist thinking and writing. She was influenced by Thomas Paine that all women should have equal rights. When Wollstonecraft was younger she witnessed her mom being verbally and physically abused by her father. Her father referred to her mother as a piece of property who cannot have the same future as him due to her sex. After her mother’s death, Wollstonecraft decided to make her own livelihood with her sister Eliza and her best friend Fanny.

During the Age of Enlightenment in the late eighteenth century, Mary Wollstonecraft presented a radical essay, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, that shed light on the largest, underrepresented groups of the time, women. The essay voiced the inequalities women at the time faced and called upon Wollstonecraft’s audience to invoke a revolution for the rights of women. Through her writing, she presented a compelling argument that slowly allowed women to question their “place” in society and demand change to the British social order. While these changes did not happen quickly, her work sparked the feminist movements through its unique message and called upon women to demand equality through the Match Girls Strike and Women’s Suffrage

Mary Wollstonecraft’s famous book, Vindication of the Rights of Women, is “one of the earliest expressions of a feminist consciousness.” Wollstonecraft claims that women are upset mainly due to the fact that they are not receiving the education they deserve, and goes on to explain how women are notorious for being weak, and mentally unstable. She blames the education system for this since all the books are written by men, and they claim that women are barley humans and are treated as another species. She questions the eligibility of men to claim they are better than women. A useful education, in her opinion, is one that teaches students how to be strong and independent. Her directed audience is anyone who is unsure of the true definition and meaning of feminism. Wollstonecraft believes that all humans are capable of the same intelligence, no matter the gender. Her overall idea is that every individual, both male and female, deserve equality.

The eighteenth century brought about a great deal of change and a new-found interest in science and reason. Because of this, many great inventions, ideas and innovative theorists arose from this time period. Among them was a forward-thinking essayist by the name of Mary Wollstonecraft. In her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft preaches her belief that the oppression of women is largely due to lack of female education. Although the term "feminism" wasn’t coined until decades later, Wollstonecraft paved the way for future women’s rights movements by advocating equality in education for women. She believed men and women should be equal in the very basic aspects of life, such as in loyalty in marriage. Wollstonecraft

states, “I may be accused of arrogance; still I must declare firmly what I believe that all the writers who have written on the subject of female education and manners from Rousseau to Dr.Gregory have contributed to render women more artificial, weak characters than they would have other wise been; and consequently more useless members of society” (22). Wollstonecraft believed that men who advocated for the trivial education that women received, if they received any education at all, did not even adequately prepare them for the one role that they were allowed, that of a wife.

Everyone should be treated as equals. However, in Mary Wollstonecraft’s era, women did not have the same equal rights as men. It was a time period of sexism and double standards. In her work Vindication of the Rights of Women, she argues and defends for the equality of women. Wollstonecraft believed that everyone has the ability to reason and learn; therefore women should be able to receive the same amount of necessities involving proper education, support, attitude, respect, etc., that are needed in order to accomplish goals as any other person, in this case, men. As of today in the 21st century, Wollstonecraft would be disappointed due to the amount of disrespect society contributes on women, as well as some women who have no respect for their own self-worth. In order to improve, changes must start from within.

Wollstonecraft’s problem with ‘women’ begins with the ambiguity of the term itself. According to her arguments women were socially constructed by an idealisation of their weaknesses and dismissal of their intelligence. She believed that women were “rendered weak and wretched” (1) by the varying social forces that kept them in a position of inferiority to men. Wollstonecraft argued that because their education has been so structured around the necessity of obtaining a husband, they form no basic reasoning skills and therefore their moral health suffers and they look to sublimate power through cunning and manipulation (41). While Wollstonecraft generally views the enactment of typical behavioural archetypes associated with women as an artificial

“Wollstonecraft believes that if a woman submits to a marriage just to remain idle, she has no right to complain of her fate or act like she has a right to disregard rules” ( Michaels, “Mary Wollstonecraft on Marriage”, www.womenandmarriage.com).

In introduction, Mary Wollstonecraft wastes no time to illustrate and sadness and disappointment with their education system and their educators. Wollstonecraft believes that men see women as wives and mistresses and not “human creatures” and that the government observes the female as inferior to male. To Wollstonecraft, the instruction of women to be beautiful and yielding to men in search for marriage leaves their minds and usefulness sacrificed. Wollstonecraft’s writings are a clear and direct cry to women to have and explore their desires as well as curiosity, and in that regards, intelligence and human character. Wollstonecraft contends that a more educated woman would bring about a happier husband, child, and society. A quote that summarizes

A woman, which was odd because during that time women were not equal. Though now, in modern day, equality between women and men is less likely to happen, but that’s how it was back then. Mary thought that women should be equal, and the best way to insure that would be giving women the same education and natural rights as men. If they were given the same opportunities and, even more, the same choices as men. In her book A Vindication of the Rights of Women that was written in 1792 “women must be allowed to found their virtue on knowledge, which is scarcely possible unless they be educated by the same pursuits as men.” She basically tells her audience that women should be educated same as men so they will find value in themselves, and so they can have value in society. In another paragraph of her book she writes “the only method of leading women to fulfill their peculiar duty is to free them from all restraint by allowing them to participate in the inherent rights of mankind.” Wollstonecraft believes women in order to give women equality they should have the same natural rights, as well. This also means she supports the idea that there are natural rights that mankind should all have. This though in modern day in quite self explanatory was not in her day and definitely adds that not just men, but women also should receive natural rights since they are, in fact,

The Age of Enlightenment encouraged writers to break away from conventional thought and express their ideas and opinions through reasoning. Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” and Marquis de Sade’s “Philosophy in the Bedroom” examine the conventional norms in their respective author’s contemporary societies. In both accounts, Wollstonecraft and Sade prescribe the path humanity should take in order to improve the human condition.

Mary Wollstonecraft, who was born during the age of enlightenment in the 18th century, is one of the most prominent feminists in women’s history. Her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman led her to become one of the first feminists, advocating for the rights of women. Born in a time where women’s education was neither prominent nor important, Wollstonecraft was raised with very little education. However, events in her life influenced her to begin writing, such as the way her father, Edward John Wollstonecraft treated her mother, “into a state of wearied servitude” (Kries,Steven)1. In 1792, she published Vindication on the Rights of Woman, which is one of the most prominent feminist pieces to date. This book is considered a reply to

Mary Wollstonecraft’s, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, is another example in which an Enlightenment author exhibits their opinion on the education and purpose of women. Contradictory to Rousseau’s writing, Wollstonecraft believed that women have a greater purpose than to serve man, and that is to be independent and care for others while they also care for themselves. She stated that unlike in Emile, women should be seen as and act independently and take care of themselves. She believed that women are not on this Earth for the purpose of serving men, and that they can stray away from these duties if they wish. Education wise, Wollstonecraft believed that a woman should not be limited to caring for their families, but may choose to pursue a higher learning, such as nursing and healing. But, she also said that caring for their children and husbands is not to be seen as a lesser job that women take part in, and that it is to be respected. Although Wollstonecraft incorporated some

As one of the earliest feminist writers, Mary Wollstonecraft faced a daunting audience of critics ready to dispel her cry for the rights of women. Her powerful argument calling for equality in a society dominated by men was strong, and her ideas withstood a lot of criticism to become one of the most important feminist texts. Her argument was simple and illustrates a solution to the inequality in society. The foundation of this argument is the idea of education and how independent thought is necessary to live a virtuous and moral life. In the present state of society, women are seen as inferior to men and held in a state of ignorance. The worst effect of this

Wollstonecraft’s early life was, by modern standards, quite miserable. She was born as the second child on April 27, 1759 into a relatively poor family, and her father was an abusive alcoholic who often beat her mother. Her mother favored her older brother Edward over her- Wollstonecraft was never praised for anything that she did, even though she often protected her mother from her father’s attacks. These blatant injustices helped her to learn from an early age to be independent and to not depend on anyone, and this want for independence would follow her into adulthood (Ferguson and Todd 1). After seeing her mother’s unhappy state, she began to hate that marriage was unequal and unbalanced in power, which led her to avoid marriage until she was 38. Most of the male figures in her early life were unreliable and unjust, and she realized that she would have to rely on herself.