Mary

Wollstonecraft
Writer, Philosopher,
and Advocate for
Women’s Rights
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
❖ The books purpose:
➢ Argue for women’s education
■ Beyond the domestic = no education
➢ Dispute essentialist ideas about women's nature
■ Essentialism: all women have certain features, they are
weaker, maternal; the lesser sex
➢ Dispute conduct manuals
■ Manuals written to highlight how women should act --
very oppressive
➢ Challenges religious viewpoints
■ Cast women as vindictive or temptresses -- Eve
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

❖ Prevailing ideas of Wollstonecraft’s time:

➢ Women were physically inferior
➢ Women should only be educated on domestic life
➢ Temptress/ inherently lustful
➢ Women do not belong in positions of authority
➢ Original sin based with Eve
■ inferiority and sinfulness
 How does Wollstonecraft Respond?
❖ Women being educated creates better society
➢ Children
❖ Stop infantilizing women
➢ “My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures,
instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they
were in a perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone” (8).
❖ Women’s vices are men’s fault
➢ “Slaves and mobs have always indulged themselves in the same
excesses, once they have been broken loose from authority. The bent
bow straightens with violence when the hand that is forcibly holding
it is suddenly relaxed” (87).
 How does Wollstonecraft Respond?
❖ You say women are shallow, but how else have you
taught us to be? What choice are women give?
➢ “Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman’s sceptre, the mind
shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks
to adorn its prison” (46).
❖ Allowing women to better themselves will better men as
well
➢ Women will be detriment to me if not educated -- will not be a
hindrance to men but a benefit
In short, one of the OG
Feminists