Wollstonecraft 's Vindication Of The Rights Of Women

In her book about education as a vehicle for social mobility of women in society, author, philosopher, and women’s rights activist Mary Wollstonecraft uses several rhetorical devices to build her argument about women’s roles in society. She uses a comparison and contrast expository mode to help people understand the modern woman’s experience, especially as it differs from the experience of men, appeal to pity to create an emotional connection with her audience, and restrained diction to show how confined women are in society, all through an iconoclastic and indignant tone.

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

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.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman addresses the causality between a lack of education and a lack of reasonability. She advocates for virtue through reason, rather than virtue over reason. Wollstonecraft argues that the minimal freedom of women has limited their view on life, and thusly, their potential intelligence. In fact, she stipulates “all the difference that I can discern, arises from the superior advantage of liberty, which enables the former [man] to see more of life.” Through this greater exposure to the world, Wollstonecraft argues that man holds greater capacity for the development of a thoughtful mind. She extends this reasoning when asserts that a female who attempts to grow her intellect is quickly quashed through deflection to a life of domestic rules and behavior. Wollstonecraft asserts, “if they have natural sagacity it is turned too soon on life and manners.” In summary, this piece of literature contends that women are shaped into subservient individuals who lack the capacity for original thought and discourse. This is portrayed in her comparison of women to a soldier. “[T]hey may well be disciplined machines, but they seldom contain men under

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.

In favor of educating women to end the inequality affecting both sexes, Wollstonecraft argues the deterioration of virtues is in result of the negligence of knowledge. According to Wollstonecraft “If women isn’t fitted by education to become a man’s companion, she will stop the process of knowledge” (Wollstonecraft 2). In other words, women who aren’t allowed to peruse an education that allows them to become as knowledgeable as a man will

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.

In response to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord 's 1791 report to the French National Assembly that had stated that the only education a woman should receive is one the domestic nature, Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In this piece she talks of women in a seemingly “abstract” way as she does not apply her reasonings to only British women or women of the 18th century. She says that women should also be educated so they can have opportunities to contribute in society. She tells of the fact that society will collapse without educated women as they have influence over young children as mothers.

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”.

She writes that the second type of women can become more useful members of society but they lack the greatness of mind and taste which allows them to do so, as a result of their education. Wollstonecraft believes that women in this state cannot be effective mothers because all of their power derives from their believed and implied superiors, men. She then examples many different vocations and career which would be suitable for women, and criticizes these professions for being vain or useless. She then goes on to state that women, should they ever need to support themselves should and could practice as physicians, lawyers, shopkeepers and politicians; however, their lack of education and status keeps them from being able to pursue vocations where they would be effective. The excerpt then finishes with two notions, the first being that men should release women from the proverbial chains that imprison them in their lives so they can become better mothers, wives and citizens. The second is the notion that, if given the freedom, women would emulate the high moral standards of men, otherwise known as virtue which is a central theme in Vindication.

This trouble, however, can still be sourced to men, who have forwarded the cultural idea that women are innately more emotional and hysterical than men: “render women more artificial, weak characters, than they would otherwise have been” (Wollstonecraft). By receiving an education, women can live up to Enlightenment virtues, and “become the friend, and not the humble dependent of her husband” – in essence, her education will bring her toward reason and not emotion, becoming a further recourse for society as a whole (Wollstonecraft). To that end, Wollstonecraft asks for a “a great man…with sufficient strength of mind” to dispel these prideful notions of women not deserving a good education, and to put their strength to the test by competing in a world with educated

Wollstonecraft`s critique of Jean-Jacques Rousseau`s ideas of K. Fjørtoft 259 education is important to understand the context of her own ideas on education. Wollstonecraft`s ideas on education and women’s rights are introduced by her attack on the English philosopher Edmund Burke ’s harsh criticism of the French Revolution. A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792, this work is considered to be the first feminist philosophical text and it has inspired many feminist social movements. In this text, she argues that women and men are equal and therefore, they should be treated and given the same opportunities.

Vindication of the Rights of Women, written in 1792, by Mary Wollstonecraft, is primarily an argument for education for women of Wollstonecraft’s time while critiquing other writers of the time and enumerating the rights of people in general. Wollstonecraft believed that without educated women, society itself would begin to disintegrate because if women are, “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” (8). By being companions rather than simply husband and wife, Wollstonecraft believes that marriages would become more stable than in the past and in turn, if widely adopted, this stability would manifest at the state level.

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

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