SUSHANTIKA CHAKRAVORTTY

3RD YEAR, B.A PROGRAMME

CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION IN EARLY MODERN

EUROPE II (1500-1800)
WOMEN OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT- MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
(A VINDICTION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN)
The role of women in history has been largely ignored, and their works
suppressed, since most histories have been written by men. Hundreds of books
and articles have been dedicated to the intellectual and political history of the
Enlightenment and many more biographies have been dedicated to
Enlightenment intellectuals. The history of the Enlightenment also represents a
neglected area of history for many minority groups.
Traditionally Enlightenment history has been devoted to a particular group of
men viewed as intellectuals such as Voltaire, Isaac Newton and Jean-Jacques
Rousseau. One of the major groups left out from the intellectual history of the
Enlightenment was women.
During the Enlightenment period both men and women wrote about the role of
men and women and their natural place within society. Women’s status as
inferior to men during this period became institutionalized through the work of
many intellectuals who labeled women as lacking the intellectual capacities men
held. These labels were naturalized and have acted as proof of male superiority
within history effectively labeling women as resistant to the progression of history
and “Other”, fundamentally different, to men. One must look no farther than the
writing of Jean-Jacques Rousseau whose writings discussed the role of women
within society or, to be more precise, their role within the home, his discourse
on women, also excluded women from the public sphere. Jürgen Habermas
argued Women were inherently excluded from the early public sphere because
of gender and their rightful place within the household. In both his novels Julie
and Emile, Rousseau provided an image of women belonging solely to the
private sphere as mothers and wives.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT- INTRODUCTION
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was an English writer, philosopher, and
advocate of women’s rights. She was born to middle class family in England.  The
primary focus of Wollstonecraft’s literary career was to envision and propose
a social and political order in which women were treated as rational, autonomous
beings capable of independence and virtue. For that reason, many feminists
consider Mary Wollstonecraft to be a foundational figure in feminist thought.
Wollstonecraft is renowned for two main works, A Vindication of the Rights of
Men, written in 1790 in reply to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in
France, and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, her most famous work, which
followed in 1792.

A VINDICTION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN

It is one of the first texts by a female author that presented women’s
educational as an issue of universal human rights. It put forth the idea that the
gentler sex of mankind also has natural talents and should not be put into
competition with men and their abilities. Wollstonecraft wrote about women’s
status in the 18th century and how it could be improved, because she believed in
human nature as essentially good and able to change its attitude towards
prevailing situations. This self-educated woman had been very active in
intellectual circles and had observed the developments of the French Revolution
very closely. 
Rousseau was one of her intellectual contemporaries and her most criticized one,
too. In A Vindication of the Rights of Women, she cited and commented long
passages from Emile where he degraded women.

THEMES OF THE BOOK

I. The Right of a Woman to be Educated
Wollstonecraft argues that women are typically only taught to attract
husbands, with the result that their mental and moral faculties are never
fully developed—an injustice that will only be rectified if girls are educated
according to the same system and toward the same goals as boys.
Emancipation was to come through education. Education, she argued,
strengthens the marital relationship, this social contract between two
 individuals. Thus, a woman must have equal knowledge and sense to
maintain the partnership. She further stressed that a stable marriage
provides for the proper education of children. A perfect education can be
seen as exercise to strengthen the body and form the heart or to enable
the individual to attain habits of virtue as will render it independent.
II. Equality of Men and Women
Throughout A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft is often
concerned with unequal relationships between men and women, including
in marriage. When women and men are equally free and dutiful towards
family and state true freedom can be created. To achieve such equality an
equal and qualified education for women is necessary including the
education of their duties to educate their children, to be an equal partner
to her husband to make themselves creatures of thought and feeling,
therefore, of reason. Women need self- realization, self- reliance and self-
respect instead of dependence and control. Even if females are naturally
weaker than males, Wollstonecraft argues, that doesn’t mean they should
be allowed to become even weaker than nature intended. 
III. The Missing of Reason
Women were seen a lot in sensing and feeling activities combined with
fashion and beauty which denigrated their reason. She claims that women
generally aren’t given the chance to develop their reason, but have
traditionally been allowed to let their emotions master them—thereby
limiting their appetite and capacity for anything but trivialities.
Wollstonecraft argues that women, as rational creatures made in the image
of God, must develop their reason in order to properly regulate their
emotions and, ultimately, to become virtuous. Education, Wollstonecraft
states, is for the sake of elevating oneself as a human being. To this end,
women as well as men should be encouraged to develop virtues, which are
common to both sexes. Reason is what elevates humanity over animals,
and virtue is what elevates one human being over another. Wollstonecraft
argues that women must be trained to “strengthen our minds by reflection,
till our heads become a balance for our hearts.” To ensure that girls receive
the same training in reason and virtue that boys do, Wollstonecraft
proposes that girls should receive the same vigorously intellectual
education.
 Women’s Role in Society
The picture of women in the community was often portrayed as their being
made to be loved. A man was probably seen as a superior being.
Wollstonecraft argues that women must be oriented toward meaningful
things throughout their lives. This will let them acquire virtues suited to the
rigors of motherhood, and even be educated for the sake of their own
financial security and the overall betterment of society. Furthermore, it’s
not just motherhood that requires more of women. Wollstonecraft argues
that in all areas of life, broader education reduces women’s dependence on
their husbands, expands their freedom, and enables them to be more
engaged contributors to society. She even envisions the possibility of direct
political involvement, though admitting this might seem laughable in the
eyes of society. Wollstonecraft closes Vindication with an argument for
state-sponsored coeducational schools. She argues that such schools, by
mixing genders from an early age, would allow virtuous habits to develop
more naturally.

THE IMPACT OF “A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN”

Rousseau opposed Wollstonecraft most concerning the subordination of women
to men. Rousseau, seen by her as a cold rationalist, thought that a woman must
be dutiful to her husband and follow him her whole life long. Rousseau expected
from women to be virtuous and constant, but he stressed that she was not
allowed to think that reason is the foundation of their virtue and truth the object
of their inquiries, either.
At the time of its publication in 1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Women was
considered radical and revolutionary. By the end of the year Joseph Johnson
published a second edition of her book. Contemporary reactions ranged from
shock to amusement to enthusiasm. Despite a number of mean-spirited parodies,
including A Sketch of the Rights of Boys and Girls and A Vindication of the Rights
of Brutes, there is no doubt her book had a tremendous impact on British and
American feminism. Her argument that one must educate mothers so they may
better raise their children would be echoed by the advocates of the philosophical
movement “Republican Motherhood” in the first years of the new American
republic.
Mary Wollstonecraft's ideas were savagely attacked in England after her death,
when the horrors of the French Revolution had convinced most Englishmen that
all revolutionary theories were dangerous, because so many people were killed
and persecuted.
Her inspiring vision of a world in which women are treated as rational and
autonomous beings inspired a wide variety of thinkers within the early feminist
movement. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who organized the first
ever women’s rights convention in America, had both read and admired
Wollstonecraft’s work. Diverse authors including Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, and
even Emma Goldman had positive opinions of Wollstonecraft

CONCLUSION
Wollstonecraft’s feminism arose partly through personal experience and partly
through her having had an education. Even if we set aside Wollstonecraft’s
massive influence on later thinkers, her works express a unique and compelling
perspective on the essence of freedom. Most distinctive of these is
Wollstonecraft’s radical notion that women and men be educated together. What
is of greatest note is that Wollstonecraft is one of the most important women
who laid the foundations for sexual independence. She was influenced by many
men whom she analyzed, criticized and supported their opinions.

REFERENCES
 Article “The Appearance and Subordination of Women” by Lily Climenhaga
 https://www.litcharts.com/lit/a-vindication-of-the-rights-of-woman
 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wollstonecraft/