This letter is the dedication of Mary Wollstonecraft’s philosophical essay A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, written as a direct reaction to Talleyrand’s 1791 report to the French National Assembly, which argued that women should only receive a domestic education.

In this dedication, Wollstonecraft first asks Talleyrand to give her work consideration, even though she knows that he will not agree with it. She states that she is “[pleading] for [her] sex”, not herself, because she knows that independence is the root of all virtues. She wants to see “woman placed in a station in which she would advance… the progress of those glorious principles that give a substance to morality”. She argues that the reason France is the most intellectually superior country is because of “the social intercourse which has long subsisted between the sexes”. She acknowledges that French women do not always display the best manners. However, women need the opportunity to develop their morals through education to posses virtuous manners.

She states that her argument for why women should be educated is simple:

“…if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge, for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its influence on general practice. And how can woman be expected to co-operate, unless she know why she ought to be virtuous?”

In Wollstonecraft’s argument, it is the education of women that will lead to the development of a virtuous nation and society because the women will have the education to build their own virtue, then will educate their children and instill manners in them.

Wollstonecraft then appeals to Talleyrand by quoting his work and pointing out that he sees the inconsistency in how men and women are treated. She questions, “Who made man the exclusive judge, if woman partake with him the gift of reason?” She posits that this is the style of “tyrants”, instead of a society based in reason. She summarizes:

“The more understanding women acquire, the more they will be attached to their duty, comprehending it, for unless they comprehend it, unless their morals be fixed on the same immutable principles as those of man, no authority can make them discharge it in a virtuous manner. They may be convenient slaves, but slavery will have its constant effect, degrading the master and the abject dependent.”

In the society that Wollstonecraft describes, women will not understand the consequences of any actions beyond “domestic concerns”, which will make them prone to meddling in more serious affairs without the knowledge or reason to make a substantive contribution. With this equity, more happy marriages of equal partners will occur, leading to less immorality, and therefore, making a more virtuous and just society. Therefore, it is the duty of societies based in reason to require women to be educated beyond domestic matters.

Wollstonecraft closes her letter and dedication by appealing to Talleyrand to try some of these ideas in France. She believes that if women are justly included in the new constitution as equals, then her theories will be proven correct and women will have justice.