A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

by Mary Wollstonecraft

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What were the political, social, and economical implications of A Vindication of the Rights of Women?

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I would have thought that the biggest implication out of the choices you list would have been social, as this treatise calls for a massive reassessment of the role of women in society and how they are viewed right now, and argues for a more equitable and less stereotyped way of regarding them. Consider how the Introduction to this essay depicts the standard view of women at the time:

The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently prove that their minds are not in a halthy state; for, like the flowers which are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty; and the flaunting leaves, after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the stalk, long before the season when they ought to have arrived at maturity.

Throughout her treatise, Wollstonecraft insists on treating women like "rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual cihldhood, unable to stand alone." The simple tactic of treating women as thinking, logical individuals who are able to reason and are intellectually equal to their male counterparts would have had massive implications, as it would have resulted in the intelligence and gifting of women being recognised, and how, in so many areas, they are at least the equal to, if not the superior of, men. This of course would have had knock-on implications that would have influenced other spheres.

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