A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN

By Mary Wollstonecraft

OR

WOMEN’S EDUCATION FOR THEIR FREEDOM

AND

FOR A BETTER SOCIETY

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 CONTENTS

I. Introduction and Historical Context: English Enlightenment

II. Mary Wollstonecraft’s brief biography.

III. Why A Vindication of the Rights of Woman?

IV. SUMMARY.

V. ANALYSIS.

V.i. Structure.

V.ii Themes.

V.iii Genre, Rhetoric, Style.

V.iv Enunciation. Address.

V.v Intertextuality. History. Ideology.

V.vi Evaluation.

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I. INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT:

ENGLISH ENLIGHTENMENT

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) may be considered a written example of a

new period, a new era in which the pillars of the world were shaken. England had already

suffered the changes that would open the door to future ideas.

In 1649, Charles I was executed and a republican state, ruled by Oliver Cromwell,

substituted the old regime of absolute monarchy, the Glorious Revolution in 1688 settled a

very different concept of religion. Since then, things would not be the same, as citizens started

to question the ‘status quo’ and the Enlightenment century began to show its vision about the

humankind.

The Age of Reason, Enlightenment, Siglo de las Luces, whatever name we give the period

between the 17th to 18th centuries, would spread, all over Europe and the new world, a bunch

of new ideas, ideas that questioned not only religion and politics, but also the arts, economy

and philosophy. During this period Science flourished, the cities started to bloom, the

Economy principles suggested different ways of trading, the Industrial Revolution made

changes which triggered the progress in all aspects of people’s life.

Locke, Newton, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Goya, Swift, Defoe, Behn, Handel, Mozart, Paine,

Spinoza, Astell, Hume or Pope amongst many others, would be the personification of the idea

that reason was the path to progress, as reason was the gist of life.

All the aspects of society would be questioned, salons and coffee houses were centres of

political and cultural discussions; journalism and free thinking were the key to spread the new

thoughts onto the common people and pamphleteers made things […] […] easier, since their

ideas reached all the social strata; the revolutions would start in France and America, as the

new political ideas were flying all around the world.

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II. MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT’S BRIEF BIOGRAPHY.

The author of Vindication of the Rights of Woman, would be mother to Mary Shelley, the

Romantic author of Frankenstein, although they could not enjoy their company nor even

share their revolutionary ideas.

Mary Wollstonecraft was born in London, in 1759. Although her family did not have a low

income, her father managed to make things difficult for her mother, six siblings and herself.

Edward John Wollstonecraft, Mary’s father, was a violent man and used to hit her mother

when he was drunk, he also exhausted the family’s money and led them to a series of moves

and debts.

Mary faced very hard moments during her youth, as she tried to protect her mother and

sisters from tyrannical partners and tried to live a better life on her own in the city of Bath,

where she worked for a wealthy lady, although she would return to London to nurse her dying

mother.

Mary had the opportunity to work for a publisher in London, Joseph Johnson, who helped

her to meet some of the most important political thinkers of the time, such as Thomas Paine, a

radical pamphleteer, and his later husband, the philosopher William Godwin.

Mary’s life experience made her be very critical with the oppressive figure of men, a

tyrannical figure who followed the religious and social conventions in detriment of women,

from a father to a husband, women were never free, women could not be free thinkers nor free

individuals, since they had to behave and act to please men, which was their only role in life,

apart from that of giving birth to children.

Mary travelled to France, so as to experience the revolutionary ideas which overthrow

another tyrannical ruler, Louis XVI, and her seductive wife Marie Antoinette; also, to meet

some revolutionary thinkers and witness the pros and cons of the liberal thoughts.

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 Personally, Mary had to suffer the death of her best friend, the disappointment of a wrong

lover, Imlay, father to her first daughter, two attempts of suicide, economic problems, her

sisters’ family issues, but, despite all the adverse winds, she even would manage to open her

own school, in order to put into practice her idea of an equal education for boys and girls.

In 1797, Mary and William Godwin, the political philosopher, got married, however they

lived apart, as neighbours (in semi-detached houses) to be consistent with their own ideas

about independence into marriage.

William would have to bring up Mary, his daughter with Mary, since, on 10 th September

1797, Mary would die of childbed fever.

III. WHY A Vindication of the Rights of Woman?

Rousseau and Talleyrand-Périgord had quite an important role, on talking about the

reasons why Mary wrote her Rights of Woman.

By 1792, year when this philosophical treatise was published, Mary had already been

influenced by the results of the rebellion in France, the French Revolution (1789); her

personal past, along with the reading of Rousseau’s and Talleyrand-Périgord’s ideas about

how women should be kept ignorant and treated as an object of pleasure for men, provoked

Mary’s reaction in order to defend her thoughts about an egalitarian role of women in society.

Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1786) started a series of writings about the

importance of women’s education, written by Mary after her experience as a school

headmistress and followed by Mary, a Fiction (1788), quite a biographical novel where Mary,

becomes a heroine (for the first time in English Literature) and a genius (as a response to

Rousseau’s Sophie).

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 Soon after the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Mary responded E. Burke’s

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) with her A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in

which she argued about the irrationality and unfairness of rights based on traditions, for rights

were natural and given by God, as she would discuss later.

Charles M. de Talleyrand-Périgord, a French politician and laicised bishop had written

Rapport sur l’instruction publique in 1791, which Mary had the opportunity to read and to

disagree with via her philosophical treatise A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

In his Rapport, Talleyrand-Périgord, in the same line of Rousseau’s thoughts, advocated a

father-controlled women’s education at home, where they would have to keep calm and

ignorant, apart from others, as only men were destined to learn and live a public life.

Mary would have had enough of brutal and unfair women segregation ideas, and ready to

show that a woman could also be wise and independent, she decided she’d better dedicate her

long essay about women’s education to Mr. Talleyrand-Périgord, which started with a letter to

the French diplomat.

IV. SUMMARY.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is a philosophical essay in which women are the

protagonist of an unfair, tyrannical and irrational treatment. As daughters, women are isolated

from society and taught to be future objects of men’s pleasure, not considered intelligent at

all, they remain ignorant of their inhuman condition and follow traditional conventions,

marrying not because of love, but for economic reasons, becoming a mere object of trade.

Education from childhood, with equal opportunities for boys and girls could change those

traditional conventions, and, women would show their potential, becoming better wives and

mothers, being part of society with equal rights, so as to achieve a necessary independence to

avoid difficulties in life, in case of lack of husband.

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 Society needs women’s education, in order to progress and develop morally better and

happier citizens; a different national school system would need to be achieved, in order to

benefit society; parents should also have to build different parent-child relations, in which

dialogue and reason encourage affection as a base of a happier individual.

V. ANALYSIS.

V.i. Structure.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman presents an idea which is developed throughout the

treatise from several aspects, women should receive the same education as men, so as to

become free and get a better society.

This philosophical essay is divided in thirteen chapters, with an introduction and a

dedicatory letter to Mr. Talleyrand-Perigord.

Planned to be divided in two parts, this is the first of them, although the second would never

be written.

Rights of Woman opens with a dedicatory letter to Talleyrand-Perigord, in which the

speaker asks for his consideration on the matters that will be explained about the rights of

women and education. It is really a good summary of the treatise.

This philosophical essay can be divided in three parts, as follows:

 Introduction to Chapter 4.

The speaker arguments that humans defer from animals due to their reasoning. Besides,

human bodies have souls, all human beings, regardless their gender, and that soul is

connected to reason, therefore women and men are equal and should receive the same

education, for they can both reason matters using their reasoning skills.

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 Chapter 5

The speaker points out some thinkers, criticising their arguments about the role of women,

who should be educated just to be good wives and mothers, their purpose in life. J.

Jacques Rousseau is the philosopher on whom the speaker focuses her critique.

 Chapters 6 to 13.

In these eight chapters the speaker’s opinion about children’s education, either at home or

at school, is broadly explained. So that individuals are morally good, rational and

affectionate they should receive a better education from their early years, a shared

education, boys and girls mingled, as to experience, from childhood, the society they will

later live in their adult years. Affection and dialogue from parents, along with a better

schooling system will give women their equal position in society.

 Closure

After her arguments, in the last paragraph, Vindication’s speaker addresses her claim

directly to men, asking for justice and comparing them to the Egyptians who whipped the

Israelites while they were working. She also reminds them that they are the cause of

women’s ignorance and virtue.

‘‘Be just then, O ye men of understanding! and mark not

more severely what women do amiss, than the vicious
tricks of the horse or the ass for whom ye provide
provender, and allow her the privileges of ignorance, to
whom ye deny the rights of reason, or ye will be worse
than Egyptian task-masters, expecting virtue where
nature has not given understanding!’’(107)

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 V.ii. Themes.

The themes pondered in Vindication are not exclusive of any chapter in particular, as they

are treated repeatedly throughout the treatise. Let us see them:

 Marriage.

The idea of marriage is explained as an agreement between two rational people, based on

friendship, respect, compromise and affection, rather than on other interests or tyrannical

attitudes. Women would not marry the wrong men and have unhappy lives.

Women and men would share their experiences together, as responsible parents to their

children, with no need to extra-marital relations, since sexuality should not have much

importance, in favour of equality and compromise. Beauty and sexual desire does not last,

therefore friendship is the gist to a stable wedlock.

‘‘Besides, the woman (…) become the friend (…); and if

she deserves his respect (…)’’ (19) ‘‘The most holy tie of
society is friendship.’’ (20) ‘‘A woman who is faithful to
the father of her children demands respect, and shouldn’t
be treated like a prostitute; ’’ (48)

 Reason.

This is the central theme of Vindication of the Rights of Woman. The speaker considers

reason the fundament of humankind, as a natural state. God created men and women equal,

with souls and with the same ability to reason, therefore it would be unnatural if women did

not put that skill into practice. Women would learn how to be better wives, mothers and

individuals, developing real virtue from rational fundaments, not by imposed old conventions

or by acting.

‘‘I shall first consider women as human creatures who in

common with men, are placed on this earth to develop
their abilities; ’’ (5) ‘‘It seems a little absurd to deny
women the uncontrolled use of their reason while still
expecting them to be more reasonable than men in their
likings’’ (73)

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  Sensibility and sexual attraction.

Women are taught to be weak, quiet, naïve and ignorant; men have always decided what a

woman should read, do and to whom she should marry. That insipidity has made women care

just about themselves, their appearance and how to attract men, becoming mere objects of

sexual pleasure for men, competing amongst them to get a good candidate.

Reason would help woman to care about different matters so that sensibility and sexuality

is not the centre of their existence.

‘‘If then women are not a swarm of ephemeron triflers,

why should they be kept in ignorance under the specious
name of innocence? ’’ (13) ‘‘Men look for beauty and
the simper of good-humoured docility’’ (73) ‘‘ I have
known many weak women whose sensibility was entirely
taken up by their husbands’’(103)

 Women’s economic independence.

Education can give women the possibility of emancipation, so that they do not depend on a

man, in case of a bad marriage or widowhood.

‘‘The woman who earns her own bread by fulfilling

some duty deserves much more respect than the most
accomplished beauty!.’’(88) ‘‘I entreat them to assist to
emancipate their companion to make her a helpmate for
them! ’’ (89)

 Politics: Human Rights, Social Classes, Slavery and Tyranny.

Old conventions have created a society of oppression and slavery, absolute monarchs and

tyrannical fathers. Vindication also shows a bourgeois point of view from the speaker who

criticises the rich and wealthy class.

‘‘Weak, artificial beings who have been (…) unaturally

raised above the ordinary (…) undermine the very
foundation of virtue and spread corruption through (…)
society! ’’(5) ‘‘Nature, or, to speak with strict propriety,
God, has made all things right; but man has sought him
out many inventions to mar the work.’’ (7) ‘‘(…)and this
ignoble desire, like the servility in absolute monarchies,
destroys all strength of character. Liberty is the mother of
virtue, and if women be, by their very constitution,
slaves, and not allowed to breathe the sharp invigorating
air of freedom.’’ (25)

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 ‘‘the system of tyranny and abject slavery that is
established among the boys’. ’’ (94) ‘‘Young people of
superior abilities, or fortune, might now be taught—in
another school—the dead and living languages, the
elements of science, and more on history and politics, on
a more extensive scale that wouldn’t exclude
literature.‘Girls and boys still together?’ I hear some
readers ask. Yes! ’’ (97)

 Church and religion.

The speaker questions the Protestant Church in England that has become a kind of trade

and, also, how the current Church lacks of real morality.

‘‘religion is also separated from morality by a ceremonial

veil’’ (85) ‘‘What good can be expected (…) youth who
receives the sacrament of the Lord ’s supper so as to
avoid (…) a fine? ’’ (94)

 Women’s manners, Virtue, Reputation.

Current women’s education makes them ignorant and empty of real virtue; young girls act

as they are told, so that their reputation is seen as good.

The speaker suggests a change on women’s education that leads to real virtue and good

reputation.

‘‘this would be one means of reforming female manners’’

(84) ‘‘Virtue, like everything valuable, must be loved for
herself alone or she won’t come to live with us’’ (65)
‘‘money that should have been saved for their helpless
younger children, and priding themselves on their
spotless reputation, ’’ (80)

 Education and Schooling.

From the speaker’s point of view, an individual behaves as s/he has been taught. Women

are weak and ignorant since they’ve been told and taught to be so. Men are superior as women

have taught to be subordinated to them following old conventions.

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 Public schooling for all children, boys and girls mingled at early ages, will lead to a better

society; therefore all strata should have access to good education. Socialising children from

early childhood will help them to respect and affection for their future lives.

‘‘Yet woman was built to be ignorant, according to the

writers who have most energetically argued in favour of
the superiority of man.’’ (43) ‘‘Asserting the rights that
women in common with men ought to contend for, (…);
but to prove them to be the natural consequence of their
education and station in society.’’ (106) ‘‘The good
effects of private education will always be very limited’’
‘‘and this can be done only by mixing a number of
children together and making them jointly pursue the
same objects. ’’ (93) ‘‘There are affections amongst
children that (…), and a child needs practice in the
former, because ‘in youth the seeds of every affection
should be sown’’ ‘‘(…) namely that to improve both
sexes they ought to be educated together, not only in
private families but also in public schools. . . . ’’ (94, 96)

 Novel reading.

Romantic novel is a genre which the narrative voice considers not convenient for women

to read, as instead of developing reason and understanding, it takes women’s mind into a

world of imaginary love that makes them ignorant about the reality.

‘‘These are the women who pass their time with the
daydreams of the stupid novelists who, knowing little of
human nature, work up stale tales and describe tarted-up
scenes, all retailed in a sentimental jargon that corrupts
the reader’s heart away from its daily duties. (…) The
mighty business of female life is to please, and for them
—blocked by political and civil oppression from entering
into more important concerns—sentiments become
·important· events. When they reflect on these feelings
they intensify them; whereas reflection •ought to erase
them, and •would do so if the understanding were
allowed to take a wider range. (…) So when I advise my
sex not to read such flimsy works ·as novels·, it is to
induce them to read something better. . . .’’ (101-102)

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  Parenting.

Parenting, for the speaker in Vindication, should be a responsibility which mixes affection,

dedication and friendship.

Both parents should use reason, as the base of a good education; tyranny should be

abolished in favour of friendship. Educated mothers will provide children with affection and

understanding.

‘‘Tyrants of every kind, from the weak king to the weak

father of a family, use this same argument ·that ‘It is in
your own best interests’’ (2) ‘‘A child should always be
made to receive assistance from a man or woman as a
favour’’ (104) ‘‘Meek wives are usually foolish mothers,
wanting their children to love them best, (…), who is
held up as a scarecrow’’ (90) ‘‘The parent who carefully
tries to form the heart and ‘enlarge the understanding (…)
that only reason (…). This is the •parental affection of
humanity, (…) Such a parent acquires all the rights of the
most sacred friendship (…). ’’ (91)

 Charlatans.

Women are victims of charlatans because of their ignorance and bad education. Fortune-

tellers, false doctors, spiritualists and mesmerisers make a good business at the expense of

women who are happy to spend their money believing in false predictions and cures. Reason

and education is needed to avoid these practices.

‘‘In this city a number of lurking leeches wickedly make

their living by exploiting women’s credulity’’ (99) ‘‘the
only ways that have yet been discovered for (…), health
—or anyway the only ones that will bear investigation—
are through a regimen of temperance, air, exercise, and a
few medicines prescribed by persons who have studied
the human body. ’’ (100)

V.iii. Genre, Rhetoric, Style.

Vindication of the Rights of Woman: WITH STRICTURES ON POLITICAL AND MORAL

SUBJECTS tells us its intentions from its title, a claim for the same rights of women in society,

a claim for justice with some critique on political and moral issues.

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 However, we can notice that it refers to Woman and not Women as it could be expected,

maybe an implicit way of personalise the claim?

‘‘I dedicate this volume to you, to induce you to

reconsider (…) about the rights of woman and national
education; and I’m calling with the firm tone of
humanity. (…) I plead not for myself but for my sex. (…)
I have regarded independence as the great blessing of
life, the basis of every virtue; (…) So it is my affection
for the whole human race that •makes my pen (…) My
opinion about the rights and duties of woman (…) the
enlarged minds who formed your admirable constitution
will agree with me. ’’ (1)

We have a philosophical treatise before us, but, as we have read above and throughout all

the work, the elements of personalisation, the principles and arguments create a hybrid genre

that can be considered a philosophical essay and conduct book mixed with elements of novel,

where those rights of women are claimed through some other topics also related and discussed

(national education, parents-children relations, sexuality…).

Regarding the tone of Vindication, the speaker asks for justice using reason (as we read on

the closure), which is the main theme of the essay; it is a very consequent argumentative way

of demanding; She does it using very clever, direct and rescindable lines to defend her

arguments:

‘‘Pleasure is the business of a woman’s life, according to

society’s present estimate; and for as long as that
continues to be so, not much can be expected from such
weak beings. Inheriting the sovereignty of beauty in a
lineal descent from ·Eve·, the first ‘fair defect’ in nature,
they have maintained their power by resigning the natural
rights that the exercise of reason might have given them,
and chosen to be shortlived queens rather than labour to
have the sober pleasures that arise from equality. ’’ (38)
‘‘I really think (don’t laugh!) that women ought to have
·parliamentary· representatives, instead of being
arbitrarily governed without being allowed any direct
share in the deliberations of government.’’ (87)
‘‘Because females are denied all political privileges, and
as married women...are denied even a civil existence,
their attention is naturally drawn from the interests of the
whole community to the interests of the tiny parts. . . . ’’
(101)

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 The reader can perceive a much harder tone on reading chapter 5, where a more defiant

discourse is presented, mainly focused on Rousseau and his works, when a more critical tone

can be felt. Not in vain, the title of this chapter is called Animadversions on Some of the

Writers (…).

‘‘Permanent virtue! alas! Rousseau, good visionary! your

paradise would soon be violated by the entrance of some
unexpected guest. ’’ (51) ‘‘My comments will all spring
from a few simple principles, and could be derived from
what I have already said; but his argument has been
constructed with so much ingenuity that I think I have to
attack it in a more detailed manner, and make the
application ·of my principles· myself ·rather than leaving
it to the reader·. ’’ (53)

Sometimes, we can also bump into an elegant and diplomatic tone of critique

‘‘Dr Gregory’s legacy to his daughters is full of such

paternal care that I embark on the task of criticism with
affectionate respect. ’’ (62)

The style that Vindication presents, as said above, presents a plain, straight forward and

understandable discourse, obviously, it was written to instruct and make readers reflect about

the important very important matters, they should consider; it had to shake the conscience of

as many readers as possible. However, it is full of allusions to the classics, contemporary

poets and philosophers that could not be read by all strata in those years. Maybe, the speaker

is addressing her words to a middle-class audience who probably had more access to those

authors.

On talking about figures of speech in Vindication, as already said, multiple allusions can

be found, from a very knowledgeable speaker, who explains her principles and arguments

with lots of examples from contemporary authors and personae:

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  Dryden, John Gay, Milton (Paradise Lost), Locke, Swift (Gulliver’s Travels),

Rousseau (Emile), Fordyce, Dr. Gregory, Lord Chesterfield, A Smith, Shakespeare

(Macbeth), Louis XVI, C. Macaulay, Anna Letitia Barbauld, H Chapone, Mrs Piozzi…

‘‘They must have had iron constitutions! Shakespeare

himself didn’t grasp the airy dagger with a nerveless
hand, and Milton didn’t tremble when he led Satan far
from the confines of his dreary prison.. ’’ (26) ‘‘*
Sappho, Eloisa, Mrs. Macaulay, the Empress of Russia,
Madame d'Eon, &c. These, and many more, may be
reckoned exceptions; and, are not all heroes, as well as
heroines, exceptions to general rules? I wish to see
women neither heroines nor brutes; but reasonable
creatures. ’’ (35)
‘‘Anyone who has read with a philosophical eye Dean
Swift’s disgusting description of the Yahoos, and his
insipid account of the Houyhnhnms, must see the futility
of degrading the passions or making man settle for being
merely contented. ’’ (69)

 Parable of the Talents/Minas (Bible)

‘‘Behold, you gave me a talent, and here are five

talents’’.(35)

analogy: The comparison of women like slaves to their fathers, brothers and husbands,

tyrants to their lovers and children, and, like soldiers who obey rules without asking why,

without reasoning.

‘‘The only difference I can see comes from the fact that
soldiers are free to see more of life than women are. . . ’’
(16) ‘‘that when women obtain power by unjust means
they lose the rank appropriate to their having reason, and
become either abject slaves or capricious tyrants. ’’ (31)

 Men are also compared with slaves and tyrants:

‘‘. . . .Riches and hereditary honours have made cyphers

of women. . . .and idleness has produced a mixture of
gallantry and despotism in society, which leads men who
are slaves of their mistresses to tyrannize over their
sisters, wives, and daughters. . . ’’ (16)

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 hyperbole:

The speaker shows her deep interest in the matter with this exaggeration:

‘‘So it is my affection for the whole human race that

•makes my pen speed along to support what I believe to
be the cause of virtue.’’ (1)

rhetorical question:

The speaker asks her readers, so that they get involved with the arguments exposed, to

make them think and reflect about her arguments. This resource is used throughout the

treatise, so that the reader keeps using its reason:

‘‘Where will you find comfort, forlorn and disconsolate

one?’’ (77) ‘‘Besides, how can women be just or
generous when they are the slaves of injustice?’’ (104)

Talking about the narrative voice, Vindication’s narrator is, on the one hand, omniscient

and, on the other hand, a first person narrator, becoming biographical from time to time, as

author and speaker sometimes melt throughout the treatise talking about own experiences.

This is a way to make her arguments and principles more real, showing the proof of the

arguments exposed:

 omniscient narrator

‘‘The good effects of private education will always be

very limited; (…) When children are confined to the
society of men and women, they soon acquire a kind of
premature manhood that stops the growth of every
vigorous power of mind or body.’’ (93)

 first person narrator

‘‘I have often wished, with Dr Johnson, to place some of

them in a little shop with half a dozen children looking up
to their languid countenances for support.’’ (87) ‘‘Girls
and boys still together?’ I hear some readers ask. Yes! ’’
(97)

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  first person and omniscient narrator

‘‘I may be told that bad as this sexual promiscuity is, it

affects only one cursed part of the sex—cursed for the
salvation of the rest. Well, it’s easy to prove that it is
never right to allow a small evil in order to produce a
greater good; but that’s not the end of the matter. The
moral character and peace of mind of the more chaste
part of the sex is undermined by the conduct of the very
women to whom they allow no refuge from guilt.

These are women whom the chaste women inexorably

consign to the practice of skills and tricks that lure their
husbands from them and debauch their sons. And they
also force the modest women (who maybe surprised to
read this!) to become to some extent like themselves. For
I will venture to assert that all the causes of female
weakness or depravity that I have already discussed
branch out from one grand cause—the lack of chastity in
men.’’ (83)

V.iv Enunciation. Address.

As we have already seen, Vindication has quite a few alluded people. Most of those

allusions are explicit as referred, to either be criticised, or praised, so that the reader can learn

about the arguments about them.

This treatise is dedicated to one person, so that he ponders the principles and arguments

contained, as a response to his activities and works. We read it on the dedicatory letter to Mr.

Telleyrand-Périgord, and therefore he may be the first addressee. But, as a philosophical

essay, the addressee could be anybody who wants to read it.

By the time Vindication was published, men were the ones who could read, so, who can

better learn about how to treat women? Yes, the main target readers are men, so that they

learn how to follow a conduct that helps women to be placed at the same level as them in

society. In fact, we know that was the intention, as seen before on the closure.

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 Not only men must learn about behaviour, but also middle-class women who could also

learn about good motherhood, education, or marriage, whose rights are vindicated in the

treatise, but who have neglected their conduct in favour of pleasure, as they have been taught

to do:

‘‘For example: when a woman is admired for her beauty,

and allows herself to be so intoxicated by the admiration
she receives that she neglects to discharge the
indispensable duty of a mother, she sins against herself
by neglecting to develop an affection that would equally
tend to make her useful and happy. True happiness—I
mean all the contentment and virtuous satisfaction that
can be snatched in this imperfect state—must arise from
well regulated affections; and an affection includes a
duty. Men aren’t aware of the misery they cause, and the
vicious weakness they encourage, by only inciting
women to make themselves pleasing; they don’t consider
that they are making natural and artificial duties clash by
sacrificing the comfort and respectability of a woman’s
life to voluptuous notions of beauty, when in nature they
all harmonize.’’ (86)

Once everybody is included as addressee for the speaker of Vindication, we cannot obviate

those thinkers that have their own chapter in the treatise (Chapter 5), they deserved much

deeper consideration. Rousseau, the one who receives much harder attacks and critiques, is

constantly mentioned from the start of the essay, Fordyce, Gregory, Lord Chesterfield and

some aristocrat women follow him:

‘‘(…) but his argument has been constructed with so

much ingenuity that I think I have to attack it in a more
detailed manner, and make the application ·of my
principles· myself·rather than leaving it to the reader·(…)
Still, to give a little mock dignity to lust he insists that
when a man goes to a woman for pleasure he should not
use his strength and should depend on her will. ’’ (on
Rousseau, 53)

V.v.Intertextuality. History. Ideology

Mrs. Aphra Behn was the first woman who could make her living on her writing, and,

although she was brave enough to do so, despite the difficulties of the ages she lived in, she

did not seem to have tried starting any women’s rights defence. Mary Wollstonecraft did.

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 Conduct books were quite popular during the 17th – 18th century, and, may be Mary was

influenced by them when she wrote her Vindication.

Dr. Gregory, to whom MW refers in her treatise, had written one of those conduct books

about her daughters, which was base of Mary’s critical arguments about women’s education.

Mary Wollstonecraft, considered by some critics the first British feminist writer, was also

influenced by Mary Astell (1666-1731), who had already published some works, which are

considered the first feminist literature, and who would write:

"If all Men are born Free, why are all Women born Slaves?" (Mary Astell)

Some years after Vindication was published, Thomas Gisborne (1758-1846) wrote a very

similar book An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex, including lots of topics regarding

women’s duties, marriage, female education, motherhood… which may sound quite familiar

now that we have learnt about Rights of Woman.

From Vindication and the rest of Wollstonecraft’s works onwards, the defence of women’s

rights would not stop in literature; Jane Austen, the Brönte sisters, George Eliot (Mary Ann

Evans), Virginia Wolf, or Carol Ann Duffy (UK poet laureate since 2009) would take up her

torch.

As we have seen, MW does not only defend women’s education, as the base of their

freedom and a more egalitarian society, but also has the opportunity to attack all the

tyrannical figures of her era, absolute monarchy, corrupt aristocracy, the Anglican Church,

parents or slave trading. Mary’s ideology could be placed on the left side of the political

scene, liberalism in particular, equality, civil rights, freedom of speech and press.

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 Mary Wollstonecraft combines the three main principles of the French Revolution Liberté,

égalité, fraternité and makes them hers.

Although the critiques to the tyrants and the political powers were not a new literary topic,

what Mary did was a huge step towards the feminist movement and women’s suffrage that

would last centuries. Just thirty-eight years of a life were enough to shake old thoughts and

conventions. Mary would show how sense and sensibility could work, although Jane Austen

would be the most renamed author to write about those topics, following MW’s trail.

V.vi. Evaluation

With Vindication of the Rights of Woman, I have discovered wit, courage, logic speech,

elegance and truth from a brave and committed woman. On demanding reason, Mary

Wollstonecraft leads with her example; she proves what she says with a direct and

understandable discourse.

While I was reading Vindication, it was, sometimes, very difficult for me to remember that

I was reading a book published more than two centuries ago, since I have heard some of

MW’s thoughts in Vindication, from female friends, relatives or acquaintances.

Criticising Rousseau’s, or Talleyrand-Perigord’s words, the monarchy, corruption, the

family institution and the Church, not anonymously like M Wollstonecraft did, had to be

really hard in an 18th century patriarchal society, and she did it in a brilliant witty way.

From my point of view, the way the author addresses the subject is just perfect, claiming

for the rights of women while pointing out all the features that society should change for the

sake of progress and future generations. MW is coherent with her ideas and reasons them with

great ability, making the reader reflect.

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 She draws the reader’s attention to the importance of timeless rights we consider very basic

in today’s society, so that, not only women become free thinkers, hence free individuals, but

also any citizen can.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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XII On National Education. Available in the informal education

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(review no. 831) http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/831 Date accessed: 29

December, 2017

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 Satz, Debra, "Feminist Perspectives on Reproduction and the Family", The Stanford

Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =

<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/feminism-family/>.

 Lewis, Jone Johnson. “What Rights Did Mary Wollstonecraft Advocate for

Women?”ThoughtCo, www.thoughtco.com/mary-wollstonecraft-vindication-rights-

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 Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Mary Wollstonecraft Legacy." ThoughtCo, Nov. 15, 2017,

thoughtco.com/mary-wollstonecraft-legacy-3530793.

 Tomaselli, Sylvana, "Mary Wollstonecraft", The Stanford Encyclopedia of

Philosophy (Fall 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =

<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/wollstonecraft/>.

 Tong, Rosemarie and Williams, Nancy, "Feminist Ethics", The Stanford Encyclopedia of

Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),URL =

<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/feminism-ethics/>.

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