Berfin KARAÇÖL

201910214046

Dilek TÜFEKÇİ CAN

English Literature II

24.06.2021

A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN BY MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

SUMMARY

Wollstonecraft dedicated her work to French Bishop and politician Charles Maurice de
Talleyrand-Périgord after reading his report to the French National Assembly in 1971 regarding
the topic of education. She wrote that she hoped Charles Maurice to reconsider the subject. Her
primary argument revolves around the idea that women should be educated to be the companions
of men so that women would be in a position where they can advance humanity’s progress in
virtue, not slow it down. 

Mary states that the neglect of women’s education resulted in great misery. The education
system looks at women as ‘alluring mistresses’ instead of ‘affectionate wives and rational
mothers’ and as a result, women are concerned with romance rather than improving themselves.
Throughout her work, Mary focuses on the middle class and hopes that women will excuse her if
she treats them as rational creatures rather than children. She wants women to ‘acquire strength,
both mind, and body’ and that their first ambition should be ‘to obtain a character as a human
being’. She says the solution is for men to become ‘more chaste and modest’ and for women to
become wiser. 

Mary bases her argument on the idea that reason is what makes people human, virtue is what
distinguishes people from each other, and virtue is gained through knowledge. She rejects the
argument that men and women should aim for different virtues, rather men and women should
aim for the same virtues even though generally their duties in life differ. However, where men’s
education starts early, women’s education is disorganized and they are not given equal
opportunity to develop knowledge and virtue. Women's education mostly revolves around
pleasing men and a brief period of their lives that consists of courtship and early marriage.
Because women are taught to pleasure is their only goal, they never struggle with hardships to
develop knowledge and virtue. Therefore, they are driven by emotions that do not prepare them
for marriage or motherhood. As a result, women are left vulnerable if they are to be widowed or
seduced and ‘ruined’ by a man which results in women not being able to support themselves
financially.  

Mary also criticizes other 18th century writers on their view of women’s roles. For instance, she
heavily criticized Jean-Jacques Rousseau on his contractionary beliefs on individual choice and
the social contract. Rousseau believed that women should be educated as much as they need to
serve men. She particularly criticized the portrayal of the ideal women in Rousseau’s novel
called Emile. She wrote ‘’ The first and most important qualification in a woman is good nature
or sweetness of temper: formed to obey a being so imperfect as man, often full of vices, and
always full of faults, she ought to learn betimes even to suffer injustice, and to bear the insults of
a husband without complaint.’’ (Vindication, 108)

Mary saw duty for women as the duties of motherhood and domestic life, and that these duties
are important for building families and ultimately building the society. However, when women
are educated to primarily care about external beauty, they are left behind in doing their duties
that lead to unhappiness and malformed family bonds. Therefore, women should have laws to
support them to fulfill their natural duties. They should be able to study medicine, politics, and
business in order to be beneficial to society at large and be of greater use. 

Wollstonecraft concludes her work by proposing the establishment of a free national school for
all children. These schools would focus on creating good citizens and nurture the virtues of
children. She states that education should be co-ed at every stage. Therefore, helping the
development of relations between sexes more naturally and in healthy ways. She believes that
education would not distract women from attending to their duties but help them prepare their
minds for fulling their duties and caring for their families based on reason and virtue rather than
ill-informed prejudice and disruptive feelings.

Lastly, she calls for a revolution for women, stating that their subordinate position is due to
men’s prejudices and that they should not inherit any weakness. This way, it will be proven once
more that women are free to develop their knowledge and virtue. And as women escape from the
clutches of ignorance, they will enjoy more freedom as independent and rational humans, not
only benefiting themselves but benefiting the whole society at large.