Mary Wollstonecraft The Vindication Of The Rights Of Women

Wollstonecraft transcended the notion that she is simply expressing grievances over the unjust treatment of women establishing herself as an articulate, intellectual thinker with innovative ideas and solutions for progressing society. Through voicing her opinions, Wollstonecraft created a small revolution for women’s rights that would encourage others to begin seeking equal treatment from the men of society.

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.

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

When writing “A Vindication of the Rights of Men”, Wollstonecraft was a woman in a “man’s world”. Her voice was a lone female amongst the opinions and politics of men and she “went up against two of the

In "A Vindication of the Rights of Women", Mary Wollstonecraft uses both her experience and observations as a rhetorical device in an attempt to educate women about the necessity of having both a strong mind and body. Throughout "A Vindication of the Rights of Women", Wollstonecraft emphasizes the importance of these virtues by responding to other author’s ideas on the subject and using their words as evidence of how the patriarchal society views women and their ‘roles’ as citizens of society. Wollstonecraft, in her pragmatic treatise, critiques women and their behavior in an attempt to affect change in how women are perceived and in how women perceive themselves.

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

Using strong rhetorical arguments, Mary Wollstonecraft rationalizes the education of women in the eighteenth century. Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication for The Rights of Women responds to the concepts in England and France that encased the Enlightenment era. She uses rhetorical appeals such as logos, pathos, and ethos and throughout the reading of her argument it can be inferred that Wollstonecraft desires a world in which educating women will lead to emancipation. This political argument is a treatise on overcoming the ways in which women in her time are oppressed and denied their potential in society, with related problems for their households and society. Mary’s approach is to appeal to her both her female and male audience with the use of logos and good reasoning, “Dr. Fordyce’s comments cannot be taken seriously; he could have never had a meaningful relationship with his way of thinking”.

This is a prime example of the accepted subordination that women were to exemplify, and this "reappears often in European men's writings about women" (Anderson and Zinsser xiv). But not all women were willing to accept this fate; some wanted more to come of their lives and empower others to give significance to their lives, despite the limits and restrictions presented by their gender. If a woman were to rule over men and voice her opinions, as Wollstonecraft did, she was deemed “unwomanly” in the eyes of society. This is best expressed by the Encyclopedias of the 18th century which depicted men and woman as opposites. “Women were emotional; men were rational; women were passive; men were active. Women were gentle; men were aggressive. A woman’s virtues were chastity and obedience; a man’s courage and honor. Women were meant for the home; men for public life” (Anderson and Zinsser 143). The notion of Wollstonecraft voicing her opinion in this group was truly unheard of in this time period. Unlike other woman of her time, Mary Wollstonecraft stood out for her ideals because she "urged that women be more serious, more charitable, and more moral" (Anderson and Zinsser 123). When Wollstonecraft attended

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.

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.

In “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” Wollstonecraft women are described as “brutes … principally created for the use of man.” She also states that women in her time period were “no allowed to breathe the sharp, invigorating air of freedom” and that they “must ever languish like exotics.” She argued against these expectations by saying that women should be given a chance to improve themselves just as men are given a chance. She says “Let them not be treated like slaves” and encourages education of women by saying “Cultivate their minds… teach them, in common with man.”

In A Vindication of the Rights of Women with structures on Political and Moral Subjects, Wollstonecraft argues that women are subject to what a man’s ideal traits in a woman are instead of what a woman thinks her ideal traits are. The patriarchal society lets men have a monopoly on education, books, and government. Because men control society, they push women in to social roles of mistresses, wives, and mothers above anything else. This has harmed women’s mental integrity.

Wollstonecraft, and eventually Edgeworth, was determined to see women treated fairly, and not merely as props. Her goal, as explained in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, is perhaps the largest influence on Edgeworth’s texts, but also on other female

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is a book written by Mary Wollstonecraft. Written in 1792, it was the first great feminist dissertation. Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is a declaration of the rights of women to equality of education and political and social opportunities. The second chapter of Wollstonecraft's book, The Prevailing Opinion of a Sexual Character Discussed, Wollstonecraft discusses a woman's role as a wife. She states that if women are continually oppressed, they will not be good wives.

In today’s world of 2017, feminism is more relevant and controversial than ever, with a new, controversial president and more and more women in positions of power. However, feminism has changed and evolved since the first writers expressed their wish for more women’s rights, as do all movements. “It is time to … restore to them their lost dignity—and make them, as a part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the world,” wrote Mary Wollstonecraft in her Vindication in the Rights of Women (Wollstonecraft 49). Mary Wollstonecraft, the mother of the feminist movement wanted women to be able to be a good wife or mother through education, but today’s feminists are educated already- they want more rights for women, such