What Is Rousseau's Response To A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman

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.

Wollstonecraft seems to agree with Rousseau when she says, “that the female in point of strength is, in general, inferior to the male” (Wollstonecraft, 8). She does not say that all women are inferior in strength to men, nor does she conclude from this that women, being physically inferior, should be dependent on men. Yet, she twists the argument when she says, “in order to preserve their innocence, as ignorance is courteously termed, truth is hidden from them, and they are made to assume an artificial character before their faculties have acquired any strength” (44). This is near contradiction to her previous admission of women’s natural physical inferiority. Her use of the word “faculties” is ambiguous as to whether she means physical or mental faculties, so perhaps, she is arguing that physical inequality could be part of the oppression of women, instead of it all belonging to nature’s fault.

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.

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.

Wollstonecraft doesn’t only attack Rousseau, however. She goes as far to say "that all the writers who have written on the subject of female education and manners-have contributed to render women more artificial, weak characters, than they would otherwise have been; and, consequently, more useless members of society" (21). Although she appears to disagree strongly with Rousseau, I don’t believe that this is always the case. In her writing, Wollstonecraft is not necessarily breaking with Rousseau's central moral position; she is simply demanding that it be extended to women.

She was a mother, a moral and political philosopher, a writer, and a feminist. Mary Wollstonecraft was the ideal image of what represented the push towards modern feminism. Some may even consider her as the founding mother of modern feminism itself. Much of Wollstonecraft’s literature is influenced by her own life experiences. In 1785, Wollstonecraft took on an employment opportunity as a governess. While spending most of her time there, she had a moment of epiphany where she realized that she was not suited for domestic work. Soon after, she returned to London and became a translator and wrote for a well-known publisher and discovered her love of writing. Eventually, years later she was then able to publish her most notable work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is still a very popular book which can be seen as a guide to becoming a better citizen and understanding feminism in a critical context. This essay will argue that Mary Wollstonecraft is still relevant to the feminist cause today as her views portrayed in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman are still relatable to many of the feminist issues that currently exist around the world. This essay will do so by comparing how her views in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman can still be used as guiding principles to tackle feminist matters.

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.

From obiendience to the father, to not subordinated to the husband, women are constantly chained with oppression. Rousseau stresses that feelings and passions are directed to the women, and that wit and rationale are for the men. Wollstonecraft, on the other hand, tries to bring together passion and rationale, rather than separating them and dividing one for women and one for men. Instead of trying to imply that women deserve the opportunity to take on the “man's roles,” Wollstonecraft tries to prove that by combinding both traits will better society as a whole. She provides a solution for men to, “generously snap our chains, and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more obervant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more senseable mothers- in a word, better citizens” (Wollstoncraft, The Enlightenment Reader, Page 628). Wollstoncraft agrees with Rousseau's ideals of women needing to be good mothers and respectable wives, but she adds that men also need to take up more responsibilities in the household. She continues support the notion that men too need to be good fathers and decent husbands that meet an intellectual partnership with their wives; furthermore, both species can discuss rational thoughts as indistinguishable citizens in the household. It is only when there is gender symmetry in the

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.

Her argument was that women wouldn’t be able to advance in society, if she was given the tools of a household mother or wife. Wollstonecraft’s purpose was to bring attention about the topic of women inferiority because she was motivated for liberation and equality. She attend everyone during her time period to read due to her logical tone and hoped that her message reached

Instead of focusing on the important of beauty and grace, women should defy those stereotypes. Also in order to begin to defy those stereotypes, Wollstonecraft states that women must stop being dependent and employed domestically. By making women free of the stereotypes and the domestic dependence, men and women will finally be equals, as they ought to be. Before describing the need for equality, Wollstonecraft admits that there are gender differences that are nature-based. She states that,

Much like Jean-Jacques Rousseau who Wollstonecraft makes many references towards in the text “Rousseau declares that a woman should never, for a moment, feel herself independent, that she should be governed by fear … and made a coquettish slave in order to render her a more alluring object of desire, a sweeter companion to man” (p.91). To Mary Wollstonecraft, it is this belief that a women education should only be directed at the pleasing of a men leaves all women in a state of childhood. The state of childhood as Wollstonecraft explains is when women are unable to stand alone as the only way women can thrive in this world is through marriage and as they give in to marriage it turns them back into the state of childhood, “when they marry they act as such children may be expected to act:- they dress; they paint, and nickname God's creatures”(p.74) This perpetual state of childhood stops any progress as when women are not being afforded a quality of treatment using education that will allow them to develop virtues and minds and become independent we will never have good equal society. Wollstonecraft’s argument is all based on one principle overarching principle “that if she be not prepared education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its influence on general practice” (p.66).

Summary In A Vindication of The Rights of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft focuses her attention on oppression, society, and the fundamental rights of a woman. She goes on to elaborate about the three topics specifically detailing multiple accounts of how women are and have been degraded, discriminated, and how they have been portrayed throughout history. Wollstonecraft talks about how women have been oppressed and denied their potential in society. She mentions how it is believed that education is to blame for the condition of adult women.

Men hold the power to influence the thoughts of society because they keep women ignorant by withholding a formal education and the chance to think independently. To Wollstonecraft, education is important because it leads to independent thought and independence itself. Without education, women are ignorant and unable to fight their standing in society. Wollstonecraft refers to this situation as a "slavery which chains the very soul of women, keeping her under the bondage of ignorance." This line is important because it echoes the idea that women are forcefully denied the chance to better themselves through education. Also, the language Wollstonecraft uses, namely comparing women to slaves, shows Wollstonecraft's ideas about any form of slavery, not just involving women. Because the main subject

“…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.