Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication Of The Rights Of Women

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.

In addition to education, Wollstonecraft brings the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau to the reader’s attention because he claims that women should not feel independent, and they should be a man’s companion. “…In 1792 the British writer Mary Wollstonecraft directly confronts Rousseau’s views of women and their education…” This “initiated a debate that echoed throughout the centuries followed.” Even today, this debate is still prevalent among both young and old people.

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.

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

In an excerpt, “A Vindication of the Rights of Women, “Mary Wollstonecraft writes about women inferiority in a society full of men. She supports this by claiming that women are treated as objects of beauty. One of her examples was that the roles of a women implanted by society were a mother, wife, and mate. Another claim she identify was the lack of education given to women.

In the preface of her book she writes, “my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if woman be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common to all (Wollstonecraft).” She claims that without the gift and opportunity for women to be educated, society will ultimately become a tumultuous and uncivilized place seeing as primarily their mothers teach most young children, both boys and

All humans get education from their infancy, but women’s and men’s are educated differently. Women learn living for their husbands, while men learn wisdom and power. She believes that before birth it is not in any humans’ nature to prefer something over other thing such as preferring dolls over education. Wollstonecraft defines education as: “the kind of attention to a child that will slowly sharpen the sense, from the temperament, regulate the passions as they begin to bubble up, and set the understanding to work before the body reaches maturity; so that the fully mature will only have to continue the important task of learning to thinking the reason rather than having to start it” (A Vindication of the rights of Women, 1792, 87).

Halle Neisen Mrs. Lippincott English 1314.6 28 November 2015 Analysis of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft, most famously known as the “first feminist”, was born in London on April 27, 1759. She was raised by an abusive father that led her desire to become a philosophical writer and an advocate for women’s rights. In her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft uses examples of ethos, pathos, and logos to extend her argument that women should have individual rights, especially in education. Wollstonecraft uses ethos to convey her position that women should have individual liberties and the right to a good education.

Throughout her manifesto, Wollstonecraft points out that if women were only taught to please men on a daily basis, men would grow tired causing the women to cheat. She also points out renowned writers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Ten years before this, Jean-Jacques Rousseau had published his tell-all called Confessions. This was during the Romanticism period, a period where there was rejection of rationality and reason while in favor of feelings. There was more emphasis on subjectivity, the way the individual perceives their experience. From reading Vindication, you understand why Wollstonecraft wrote this. She claims that Rousseau’s view towards women were very double standard. He states that Women are smaller compared to men, both in their physical frame and mental frame. So because of that, they should all be submissive towards men. Thus, the prejudice of women being the weak and sensitive sex prevails. Both men and women, live their lives believing that women are weak minded. At an early age society teaches that a woman’s mind is weaker than a man’s mind, justifying it with the fact that a woman’s body is weaker than that of a man’s. This conclusion seems fully plausible, however if investigated further, one will find that that is not the case. A woman’s mind is as fully capable of reason as a man’s mind.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s argument for education of women is still relevant today. In many parts of the world, women are still oppressed and deprived of basic human rights such as education, vote, freedom of speech and social participation. Even after two and a half centuries and after Wollstonecraft’s argument, women are still fighting against cultural value, inferiority complex and marriage for their rights to education. In human society, the cultural and traditional values plays a vital role in shaping the life of an individual.

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

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

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.

“…she asserted her view that the young girls she taught had been "enslaved" by men through their social training.” (Cheatle et al.). In the time she spent teaching, Wollstonecraft learned that women were taught from a young age to be submissive to men. For women, education was nothing beyond training for courtship, childbearing and motherhood, and Wollstonecraft greatly disagreed with such a system. Later in her life, Wollstonecraft went on to write her most famous and controversial work.

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