A Women Wollstonecraft Analysis

Unlike the men, Mary Wollstonecraft agreed that individual freedom was very important to society, but that it also lead to more desirable equality for woman. “Women must be allowed to find their virtue on knowledge, which is scarcely possible unless women be educated by the same pursuits as men” (Doc D). Wollstonecraft believed the primary source was to educate woman the same as men. If a woman were educated the same as men the woman would have a greater value to society.

Women in Wollstonecraft’s time were only valued for their attractiveness, were only useful for their role as a mother, and were not given the right to an education nor the right to jobs. Wollstonecraft observes that “when a women is admired for her beauty, she suffers herself to be...intoxicated by the admiration she receives as to neglect...the indispensable duty of a mother, she sins against herself by neglecting to cultivate an affection that would equally tend to make her useful and happy” (Wollstonecraft 6). In other words, women getting so wrapped up in presenting themselves as beautiful in order to meet society’s standards then completely neglect their natural role as a mother that would make them “useful” by society’s standards by fulfilling the only role they really could at the time: a mother. Instead of being praised for being a virtuous mother, women were valued solely for their sexual attractiveness. Once their beauty fades and they have already birthed and raised their children, as Wollstonecraft states, “let them not expect to be valued” (32). During Wollstonecraft’s time, a typical woman was “dependent on her husband’s bounty for her subsistence during his life or support after his death” (19). A woman did not have any other job than to be impregnated and raise her husband’s offspring, meaning she had to be financially dependent on her husband. Women could not “study the art of healing” nor “be physicians [or] nurses”—jobs Wollstonecraft argued “women might certainly study” given the opportunity

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

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,

Mary Wollstonecraft is best known as the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women published in 1792. She is arguing against those who justify the suppression of women on the grounds that women are less rational and more impulsive and emotional than men. Wollstonecraft argues that all human beings, regardless of sex, are born as rational beings, and therefore have equal capabilities for rational thinking and acting. Wollstonecraft is a religious thinker and believes that God has created all humans with reason. To develop and cultivate one’s reason is therefore a duty everyone has to God.

Fiercely independent and far from conventional Mary Wollstonecraft called for more equality between the sexes; she ignited the flame that would turn into the feminist movement we know today. Wollstonecraft was a key founder of feminist philosophy. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) stated her view that women should have a wider access to education, not taught to depend on their beauty. “A committed women’s liberationist cannot retire from the job, only die at it.” (Dann, 1985) Mary Wollstonecraft encompassed this perfectly.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" is her most famous and influential work. It reflects her pioneering vision as well establishes her as one of the early and leading feminist of her time. She refused the way the society view women as inferior beings just because of they are not men, and argues that women should have equal education opportunities as men. Moreover, she attacked the principles upon which the society raises women. She refused that women are only taught how to be the perfect housewives, and to captures men’s attention using there beauty. Thus women thought of nothing but how to please first their fathers and later on their husbands. She also stressed that fair chances to all kinds of professions should

Wollstonecraft also expresses her frustration when it comes to the literature that females read. “Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of property, will obtain for them the protection of man; and should they be beautiful, everything else is needless, for, at least, twenty years of their lives” (Wollstonecraft 43). So, not only do they follow the examples that their mother are presenting, they are also reading literature such as Paradise Lost that portrays women to be soft and weak.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, seems to have been written as her liberal philosophical way to advocate on behalf of women’s rights regarding their political, social, and economical equality to men, with a focus on the education of women and their independence. It seems that Wollstonecraft would overstate certain issues or repeated herself constantly as a way to get her point across on the issues that she felt most passionate about. In paragraph #3, Wollstonecraft, gave a Godly based example by showing that the evils of that current time frame would result in a positive effect in the future by people pulling together to simply do what it took to overcome the current struggles of that era in a positive way. This would than result in knowledge through virtue. “There is a homely proverb, which speaks a shrewd truth, that whoever the devil finds idle he will employ.

This quote from Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, best gives the reader an overall picture of the message that can be found throughout the work. The very premise of her work is about the lack of rights that have been awarded to women during her time. A large portion of this piece revolves around the education provided to women and its inferiority compared to that of men. Not only is the education system to blame, but she also compares women to soldiers who are sent to battle before they receive proper and full education and life experiences. Wollstonecraft uses this quote to demonstrate how this inferior mindset towards women has been expressed for a long time and even by philosophers that are considered great. The

Although Mary’s influence on the world caused large amounts of controversy, she still was able to stand out upon what life was like when she was growing up. Her impact on the development of women’s privileges encompasses the present. Mary Wollstonecraft’s legacy will last forever as long as women lack equal rights in their

Wollstonecraft then starts the first chapter by giving the reader an idea of a woman's role at this time. Telling us what was expected of women, and characteristics which were not tolerated. She uses the word "inferiority" when describing the male perception or I should say society's perception of women. Mary states, " [i]n what does man's pre-eminence over the brute creation consist? The answer is as clear as that a half is less than the whole" and man is no more superior than female. We are given the overall preconceived rights as well as duties of both sexes, but while doing so Mary proposes questions to reader such as, "[w]hat acquirement exalts one being above another?" in which one sex has more sovereignty and precedence than the other. She is inquiring what acquisition determined that men were to be the superior beings. Wollstonecraft's inquisition to society is, who made up these preposterous gender assigned roles, rights, rules, and duties? Mary then says, "[v]irtue; we spontaneously reply" with a sarcastic tone. As if she herself does not buy into the charade that virtue is that determining acquirement. If virtue is that one deciding factor, then why do men have ascendance and why not women so to

Because of their revolutionary ideologies and writing styles Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley are two of the biggest names of the Romantic Revolution. Considering that Mary Wollstonecraft is the mother of Mary Shelley, Wollstonecraft more than likely had a huge influence on Shelley’s writing. Although Wollstonecraft died shortly after the birth of her daughter, Shelley was still very much influenced by her mother’s writings and the overall ideals of the Romantic Revolution in general. Despite the fact that Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley had different writing styles, their work is still comparable. The most famous of Wollstonecraft’s work are her pieces that expressed the necessity of gender equality and promoted the ideas of modern day feminism.

1. Mary Wollstoncraft's works emphasizes the Romantic characteristic of the importance of female rights and identity . 2.The theme of right of women's education and social standards in A Vindication of the Right of Women is present in the first paragraph. 3. The line from this paragraph reads “that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will not stop the progression of knowledge and virtue; for the truth must be common to all”(211). 4. Wollstonecraft continues to express in this work, many arguments about the moral right of members of the female sex to be educated. 5. In chapter two of A Vindication of the Right of Women Mary Wollstonecraft begins to change the focus of her work to female identity and their

Wollstonecraft is not advocating for physical equality because in terms of nature, men are built in a more superior manner. However, one’s mind was not built to be superior or inferior depending on one’s sex. Wollstonecraft states that men have caused women’s minds to be, “rendered weak and wretched” due to the stereotypes that became embedded in minds and cultures for hundreds of years.