MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

(1759-1797)
 INTRODUCTION

• An English writer, philosopher, and advocate of

educational and social equality for women.
• Belonged to a middle class family
• The primary focus - to envision and propose a social
and political order in which women were treated as
rational, autonomous beings capable of
independence and virtue.
• First book- Thoughts on the Education of
Daughters, 1786.
• Best known for her-  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, 1792.
 THE EPOCH OF MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT’S LIFE

1. The three major developments that her ideas were influenced by were:
• The Enlightenment
• The French Revolution
• American Revolution

2. She was influenced by four particular writers:

• Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
• Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
• Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
• Arouet Voltaire (1694-1178)
 WOMEN AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

• The idea of enlightened reason excluded women because of what was seen by many as their
innate feminine characteristics, which were viewed as inferior, weak and childlike.

• Women were effectively defined as the “Other”

• Rousseau writings discussed the role of women within society or, to be more precise, their role
within the home.

• Rousseau in Julie and Emile provided an image of women belonging solely to the private sphere
as mothers and wives

• Jürgen Habermas argued that women were inherently excluded from the public sphere because
of gender and their rightful place within the household.

• Immanuel Kant argued that in marriage the husband is the master of his wife
 A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN

• Earliest works of feminist philosophy

• Response to French politician Talleyrand-Périgord’s pamphlet on national education. 

• Articulated an account of the natural equality and liberty that all women deserved

•  Most of the piece is focused on the education of women.

• It argues that women should be taught skills so as to be able to support themselves and their children in
widowhood, and never have to marry or remarry out of financial necessity.

• Wollstonecraft rejects the common argument that men and women should aim to acquire different virtues

•  Wollstonecraft concludes  with a proposal to establish free national schools for all children.
 THEMES

THE RIGHT OF A WOMAN TO BE EDUCATED

• A woman was not created merely to gratify the appetite of man

• Education strengthens the marital relationship.

• A stable marriage provides for the proper education of children

• Because of inadequate education, women tend to stagnate, both intellectually

and morally.

• Women should be educated in such a way that they’re able to develop enduring
virtues and make their own judgments.
 EQUALITY OF MEN AND WOMEN
• Wollstonecraft is 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.

• Women need self- realization, self- reliance and self- respect instead of
dependence and control.

• Even if females are naturally weaker than males, that doesn’t mean they should
be allowed to become even weaker than nature intended. 

• Inadequate education makes women vulnerable if anything goes wrong in

marriage, especially after the early passion of marriage fades.
 THE MISSING OF REASON
• Women were seen a lot in sensing and feeling activities combined with fashion
and beauty which denigrated their reason.

• Wollstonecraft argues that women, as rational must develop their reason in

order to properly regulate their emotions and, ultimately, to become virtuous.

• 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.

• Women must be oriented toward meaningful things throughout their lives. This
will let them acquire virtues suited to the rigors of motherhood.

• 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

• She even envisions the possibility of direct political involvement, though

admitting this might seem laughable in the eyes of society

• Argument for state-sponsored coeducational schools. 

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

• Rousseau opposed Wollstonecraft most concerning the subordination of women to men.

• Rousseau, thought that a woman must be dutiful to her husband and follow him her whole
life long

• Condorcet advocated better education for women in Memoirs on Public Instruction. 

• Joseph Johnson published a second edition of her book.

• 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