“natural effect of ignorance.” She reprimands men for striving to keep women in a state of perpetual childhood and then scolding them for not acting more adult. The proper form of education cannot be achieved until society is differently constituted, she states, and this proper form would be an education that strengthens the body instead of making a virtue of weakness, and fits the mind for independence.

Finally, she evaluates the current attitudes of other writers, especially Jean-Jacques Rousseau (whom many account as a misogynist), toward women, and contends that they are blinded by their own desires and preconceptions. Though Rousseau and others stress the importance of reason and equality in political affairs, they assert that a woman should be only the toy of a man and bend all her efforts to please him. This is bound to end in disaster for all, declares Wollstonecraft, since a woman so constituted is not fit to be a wife, a mother, or a citizen. She ends the chapter by concluding that the argument that “it has ever been so” rebounds on the men who are opposing hereditary monarchies, institutions that have also existed unopposed for many years.

In chapter 3, Wollstonecraft responds particularly to Rousseau and his idealized character Sophia, the prototype of the helpless, weak, conniving female. She refutes his notion that girls are naturally drawn to dolls and to sewing, and points out that the habit of custom is more to blame for girls’ actions than are their own desires. Further, women are not likely to endeavor to improve their minds when they are more likely to achieve social place and economic ease by feigning ignorance and weakness. Wollstonecraft stresses that if we can subject an entire sex to the arbitrary caprices of their husbands and fathers, where will this unjust subjection end? Though women and men may have different duties, they are both human and must be regulated by the same principles of order, reason, and independence.

In chapter 5, Wollstonecraft responds specifically to several writers who have contributed to the problems women face in society, in her view. The first is Rousseau, already treated at some length. She greatly admired Rousseau’s political writing and his revolutionary spirit, but she finds his notions about women ludicrous and downright dangerous. She quotes Rousseau at length and dismantles most of his conclusions as arising not from observation or logic but from his own preconceptions and base desires. To his suggestion that girls are naturally flirtatious, she replies that they could not be otherwise, having been rewarded for such behavior from birth. His protestations of women’s natural state of dependence and desire to be obedient she sees as the natural result of years of servitude forced on them; how could they be otherwise? Wollstonecraft also points out the flaw in Rousseau’s reasoning. He states that beauty is valued only for a little while, yet friendship lasts and forms a deeper bond than romantic love between husbands and wives, as do children. If, then, beauty and artificial graces inevitably pall, why does he make the acquiring of them a woman’s chief duty? Why does he discourage the very education and exercise of reason that would fit a woman to be a good friend and a worthy mother?

Wollstonecraft also dismisses the sermons of Dr. James Fordyce, a popular work of the time, as poorly written and argued nonsense. She points out that another popular text, by Dr. John Gregory, is not as ridiculous or as poorly written but argues from wrong principles. Wollstonecraft also lists several women with whose works she disagrees and cites the letters of Hester Chapone and Catherine Macaulay as worthy of praise.

In chapters 6 through 11, Wollstonecraft enumerates many problems common to women, as well as the societal conditions that she sees as giving rise to these conditions and helping to perpetuate them. She treats sexual morality at some length, and she contrasts true morality with the appearance of morality that women are urged to maintain by their training. She also stresses the deleterious effects of concentrating all thoughts of female morality on chastity alone, instead of on the whole person as a citizen and a human being. She underscores the fact that until women and men are praised and elevated in society only for discharging their duties with honor, society can never advance. She points out the failure to attend to duty of English politicians, soldiers, and society women alike. However, while they continue to be rewarded for improper behavior, one can hardly expect them to do otherwise. Wollstonecraft also finds this reciprocity in the parent-child bond and finds that women who are unfit for motherhood tend to raise children who do not respect them or take care of them when they are in need.

In chapter 12, Wollstonecraft points out the many failures of the educational system, particularly boarding schools, which she finds to encourage sloth, vice, and viciousness. She advances a system of day schools so that students may live at home. Further, these schools are to be nationally supported, so that teachers need not rely on parents for their salaries, which leads to bad educational practices. She also proposes coeducation as a way of preparing boys and girls to live in society with each other. Each student should be allowed to rise on his or her own merit, and nothing else. Wollstonecraft also proposes that the class system be removed from the schools, and common respect for all humanity—and for animals—be part of the curriculum.

In the final chapter, Wollstonecraft recaps her earlier arguments and advances the notion that only by repairing the defects created by the wrongful treatment of women can society truly be advanced to a state of moral rightness based on reason. With women prone to so much folly by their lack of understanding, their advancement to rationality would bring a host of benefits to both women and men, and to any nation. She concludes by stating that most of women’s follies proceed from the tyranny of men, and if women are given their rights they will also acquire all the virtues needed to exercise them.

The impact of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was initially limited, as Wollstonecraft’s ideas were so radical for their time that many considered them nonsensical. Further, her personal life subjected her to much scorn in society and made espousing her views even more unpopular. However, with the rise of feminism in the twentieth century, Wollstonecraft was elevated to a great degree. She was often cited by early suffragists as having provided the best argument for women’s full participation in democracy.

It was only in the 1970’s that she reached her full peak of influence. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is now regarded as the first major text of feminist philosophy, and Wollstonecraft herself has been accorded an esteem she could not have dreamed of during her lifetime. The work was the first to maintain the interrelation of class, gender, and economics, an ideological position now taken as a given by most feminists. Ironically, many of the problems she cites still exist in modern society, and several of the solutions she proposed are still being sought by modern women. However, no matter what the future status of women in the world, this text will continue to be seen as the first comprehensive treatise on the state of woman in Western culture.

As an expression of protest, A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN seems mild today. Wollstonecraft, following Rousseau on the subject of female education, was mainly concerned with gaining for women the right to be educated so that they would be fit companions for men and have a chance to become equally accomplished intellectually.

Her essay, however, goes beyond arguing for an equal education for women. It is also an expose of numerous injustices to women, such as the denial of the right to vote, to hold office, to own property, or to perform any but the lowest jobs. The impact of the essay stems from examples of abuses drawn from the author’s experience rather than from abstract arguments.

Though she makes her case for women’s rights with passion, Wollstonecraft nevertheless provides a clear analysis of the problems facing women at that period in history, refuting such traditional views as those of John Milton, who held that women were designed to manifest their attractions in order to gratify the senses of men while docilely obeying them.

Unfortunately, Mary Wollstonecraft was so unconventional--she believed in sexual freedom, open marriage, and birth control--that the scandalous aspects of her life obscured her message during much of the 19th century. In our time, A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN has found its rightful place in the history of feminism.

Additional Reading

Conger, Syndy McMillen. Mary Wollstonecraft and the Language of Sensibility. Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1994. A scholarly, well-documented assessment of Wollstonecraft’s change in attitudes toward the language of emotions and feeling, from uncritical acceptance to critical rejection to a mature reacceptance and adaptation of it to new contexts, including feminism and political revolution. A corrective to standard twentieth century interpretations of Wollstonecraft that focus on the emphasis on reason during her middle years. Contains few details about her personal life and relationships.

Falco, Maria J., ed. Feminist Interpretations of Mary Wollstonecraft. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996. A collection of twelve essays on a variety of political issues. Contains two essays that compare the thought of Rousseau and Wollstonecraft—one a fictional dialogue composed of passages from their works to illustrate how these two champions of human rights disagreed on women’s rights. Includes essays dealing with liberalism, slavery, the evolution of women’s rights since the time of Wollstonecraft, and the changing reactions to Wollstonecraft since her death.

Ferguson, Moira, and Janet M. Todd. Mary Wollstonecraft. Boston: Twayne, 1984. A volume in the Twayne authors series providing concise, scholarly, and well-documented accounts of both Wollstonecraft’s life and her literary career. Includes an assessment of her ideas, style, and influence. Stresses her professional achievements more than her personal experience.

Flexner, Eleanor. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Biography. New York: Coward-McCann, 1972. Concentrates on Wollstonecraft’s early life, associating her childhood disappointments and hardships with later behavior patterns, especially her relationships with and attitudes toward both parents. Emphasizes Edward Wollstonecraft’s financial situation and its effect on his daughter. Well documented.

George, Margaret. One Woman’s “Situation”: A Study of Mary Wollstonecraft. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1970. Discusses Mary Wollstonecraft’s life and ideas.

Jacobs, Diane. Her Own Woman: The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. A lively, well-researched biography of the feminist philosopher. Includes previously unavailable material from the letters of Joseph Johnson, Wollstonecraft’s publisher.

Kelly, Gary. Revolutionary Feminism: The Mind and Career of Mary Wollstonecraft. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. A careful analysis of Wollstonecraft’s major ideas and her influences.

Kramnik, Miriam Brody. Introduction to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. New York: Penguin Books, 1975. This lengthy introduction to Wollstonecraft’s most famous work surveys her life and literary contributions. It discusses her within the framework of the history of feminism and compares her approach with the piecemeal efforts of nineteenth century feminists. Rather uncritical of Wollstonecraft’s literary shortcomings.

Lorch, Jennifer. Mary Wollstonecraft: The Making of a Radical Feminist. New York: Berg, 1990. A concise account of Wollstonecraft’s life, focusing on her relationships and her development as a feminist thinker. Stresses her personal experiences more than her professional achievements. Included is an analysis of her relevance to twentieth century feminism. Good documentation.

Poovey, Mary. The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer: Ideology as Style in the Writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. Describes Wollstonecraft from the vantage point of eighteenth century British bourgeois ideology, juxtaposing her to the prevailing cultural model of the middle-class married female. Shows how Wollstonecraft both rebelled against this unfulfilling state and became enmeshed in it. Sharp critiques of Wollstonecraft’s reasoning and her style. Also analyzes English novelist Jane Austen and Wollstonecraft’s daughter Mary Shelley within the context of their times.

Sapiro, Virginia. A Vindication of Political Virtue: The Political Theory of Mary Wollstonecraft. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Excellent analysis of Wollstonecraft’s contribution to both feminism and Western political thought.

Todd, Janet. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. A close examination of the life and work of the radical eighteenth century author and the mother of modern feminism.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, edited by Carol H. Poston. 1st ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1975. Contains the authoritative text of this essay, a section on background materials to which Wollstonecraft was responding, selections from the debate sparked by this text, and excellent critical essays.

Margot K. Frank Kristen L. Zacharias

The Work

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, subtitled With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, followed fast on her work Vindication of the Rights of Man (1790), the earliest radical rebuttal to Edmund Burke’s conservative Reflections on the French Revolution (1790). In the second book, dedicated to Talleyrand, the French minister of education, Wollstonecraft agitated for “a revolution in female manners.” She argued that complete and genuine social reform depended on validation of women as rational, moral beings fully capable of attaining virtue and knowledge and of contributing to civic welfare. Disputing the traditional view of women as naturally flawed, inferior creatures, Wollstonecraft instead blamed patriarchal socialization for stunting female identity. Prominent among the misogynist authorities whom she denounced for propaganda against women were John Milton, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Dr. John Gregory, and James Fordyce. Learnedly and often acerbically, she defended women’s need and right to be educated into adult independence; to pursue social, bodily, intellectual, and professional fulfillments; and ultimately to share “in those duties which dignify the human character.”

In its extensive analysis of female oppression by, and collusion with, a sexist status quo, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman anticipated most key concerns of subsequent women’s movements. Wollstonecraft’s thirteen chapters closely examined such crucial feminist issues as women’s debarment from formal education, institutions of power, and suffrage; their misrepresentation in images under male control; their confinement to the domestic sphere; their overvaluation of romance and sexual partnership; their mental, emotional, and (especially) economic dependence on men; their pursuit of an artificial and harmful feminine ideal that simultaneously infantilizes and oversexualizes them; their importance as mentors and role models for their children; their duty to struggle for a restructured society in which they could reconcile motherhood and career; their mistaken reliance on the ambiguous powers of the oppressed—in short, all the interlocking aspects of women’s second-class citizenship.

Wollstonecraft’s forceful treatise received little serious response. Her critics contented themselves with vicious attacks on her nonconformist life, particularly her cohabitation with Gilbert Imlay and her illegitimate daughter from this union. Moreover, her feminist contemporaries and nineteenth century successors tended to dissociate themselves from Wollstonecraft’s uncompromising assault on male privilege and the social superstructure. Despite the work’s imperfections— diffuseness, an exclusive focus on middle-class women, severity toward conventional women, and Enlightenment reverence for reason and distrust of passion—late twentieth century feminists hark back to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman as a cornerstone of feminist philosophy. In Sexual Politics (1971), Kate Millett paid tribute to Wollstonecraft’s work as “the first document asserting the full humanity of women and insisting on its recognition.”

Additional Reading

Conger, Syndy McMillen. Mary Wollstonecraft and the Language of Sensibility. Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1994. A scholarly, well-documented assessment of Wollstonecraft’s change in attitudes toward the language of emotions and feeling, from uncritical acceptance to critical rejection to a mature reacceptance and adaptation of it to new contexts, including feminism and political revolution. A corrective to standard twentieth century interpretations of Wollstonecraft that focus on the emphasis on reason during her middle years. Contains few details about her personal life and relationships.

Falco, Maria J., ed. Feminist Interpretations of Mary Wollstonecraft. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996. A collection of twelve essays on a variety of political issues. Contains two essays that compare the thought of Rousseau and Wollstonecraft—one a fictional dialogue composed of passages from their works to illustrate how these two champions of human rights disagreed on women’s rights. Includes essays dealing with liberalism, slavery, the evolution of women’s rights since the time of Wollstonecraft, and the changing reactions to Wollstonecraft since her death.

Ferguson, Moira, and Janet M. Todd. Mary Wollstonecraft. Boston: Twayne, 1984. A volume in the Twayne authors series providing concise, scholarly, and well-documented accounts of both Wollstonecraft’s life and her literary career. Includes an assessment of her ideas, style, and influence. Stresses her professional achievements more than her personal experience.

Flexner, Eleanor. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Biography. New York: Coward-McCann, 1972. Concentrates on Wollstonecraft’s early life, associating her childhood disappointments and hardships with later behavior patterns, especially her relationships with and attitudes toward both parents. Emphasizes Edward Wollstonecraft’s financial situation and its effect on his daughter. Well documented.

George, Margaret. One Woman’s “Situation”: A Study of Mary Wollstonecraft. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1970. Discusses Mary Wollstonecraft’s life and ideas.

Jacobs, Diane. Her Own Woman: The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. A lively, well-researched biography of the feminist philosopher. Includes previously unavailable material from the letters of Joseph Johnson, Wollstonecraft’s publisher.

Kelly, Gary. Revolutionary Feminism: The Mind and Career of Mary Wollstonecraft. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. A careful analysis of Wollstonecraft’s major ideas and her influences.

Kramnik, Miriam Brody. Introduction to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. New York: Penguin Books, 1975. This lengthy introduction to Wollstonecraft’s most famous work surveys her life and literary contributions. It discusses her within the framework of the history of feminism and compares her approach with the piecemeal efforts of nineteenth century feminists. Rather uncritical of Wollstonecraft’s literary shortcomings.

Lorch, Jennifer. Mary Wollstonecraft: The Making of a Radical Feminist. New York: Berg, 1990. A concise account of Wollstonecraft’s life, focusing on her relationships and her development as a feminist thinker. Stresses her personal experiences more than her professional achievements. Included is an analysis of her relevance to twentieth century feminism. Good documentation.

Poovey, Mary. The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer: Ideology as Style in the Writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. Describes Wollstonecraft from the vantage point of eighteenth century British bourgeois ideology, juxtaposing her to the prevailing cultural model of the middle-class married female. Shows how Wollstonecraft both rebelled against this unfulfilling state and became enmeshed in it. Sharp critiques of Wollstonecraft’s reasoning and her style. Also analyzes English novelist Jane Austen and Wollstonecraft’s daughter Mary Shelley within the context of their times.

Sapiro, Virginia. A Vindication of Political Virtue: The Political Theory of Mary Wollstonecraft. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Excellent analysis of Wollstonecraft’s contribution to both feminism and Western political thought.

Todd, Janet. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. A close examination of the life and work of the radical eighteenth century author and the mother of modern feminism.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, edited by Carol H. Poston. 1st ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1975. Contains the authoritative text of this essay, a section on background materials to which Wollstonecraft was responding, selections from the debate sparked by this text, and excellent critical essays.

Margot K. Frank Kristen L. Zacharias

First published in London in 1792, in the wake of the American and French revolutions, Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was itself a revolutionary book—a powerful argument for the establishment of legal, political, and social equality between men and women. Though by no means the first “feminist” writing in English (that honor should properly go to Mary Astell, who wrote approximately a hundred years before Wollstonecraft), Wollstonecraft spoke with uncommon force and vigor about the institutionalized, culturally sponsored oppression of women. Wollstonecraft’s governing premise in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman can be traced back through Thomas Jefferson and the American Declaration of Independence to the English philosopher John Locke: She claims that men and women are moral and intellectual (if not physical) equals, and are thus equally entitled to the same “natural rights.” Her first steps in presenting her case are to set forth the problem and to establish her authority—the grounds on which she will argue against the oppression of women.

The problem, simply put, is that women have traditionally been relegated to a secondary, subordinate place in society—assigned a role, as a modern feminist put it, as the “second sex.” Wollstonecraft recognizes that this is hardly a phenomenon of her time alone. Throughout history, women have been represented as intellectually and morally inferior to men, and this supposed inferiority has been used as the excuse to keep them in a subordinate position, without the power to act—or even to think—freely. Society has further conspired to institutionalize sexual oppression, reinforcing and perpetuating this subordination by denying women access to the same “rational” education as men and by insisting instead that they concern themselves only with finding ways to make themselves more attractive to men. The result, as Wollstonecraft trenchantly puts it, is that women have been kept in a state of “perpetual childhood,” a state that inhibits moral and intellectual growth and only increases their dependence on men. Independence, which Wollstonecraft sees as the necessary basis for true equality, can only come about through a “revolution in female manners” built on the recognition that women are as capable of moral and intellectual improvement as men are.

Wollstonecraft’s authority in making such claims is fundamentally religious. She argues that men and women alike have been created in the image of the “Supreme Being” and have thus been equally endowed with reason, which she sees as the attribute that defines what it means to be human and thus sets humankind above “brute creation.” Reason is not, however, simply a proof of humanity or of humankind’s superiority over the rest of creation; it is the divine gift by means of which human beings can attain knowledge, acquire virtue, and ultimately perfect themselves spiritually and morally. That “spiritual” equality guarantees both moral and intellectual equality is the basic principle upon which Wollstonecraft constructs her argument for women’s rights. For her, the fact that fully half of humankind has been forced into a position “below the standard of rational creatures” is not merely wrong; it is an affront against God. The only way to remedy this situation, as Wollstonecraft points out time and again, is to abandon the idea of essential sexual difference and to provide women with the educational opportunities that will allow them to think and act as full moral beings.

Wollstonecraft’s argument most frequently proceeds by way of analogy. As she moves through her discussion, considering the specific problem of female oppression within the context of society as a whole, she repeatedly discovers similar examples of oppression, some of them involving men as the subjects of the oppression. The behavior of military officers toward their men, of monarchs toward their subjects, of parents toward their children, of bishops toward their curates—all serve to illustrate Wollstonecraft’s proposition that the subordination of one group to another through the exercise of arbitrary power will nearly always result in the abuse of that power; in other words, in oppression—and oppression of any kind degrades men and women alike and presents nearly insuperable barriers to social progress.

History did not treat Wollstonecraft kindly—or at all fairly. The initial reception of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was largely positive (although it can be argued that the early reviewers of Wollstonecraft’s work, most of whom regarded it as a treatise on “female education,” either missed or overlooked its more radical implications). Shortly after her death in 1797 (of complications following the birth of her second child—a daughter, Mary, who was later to marry the poet Percy Shelley and write her own story of power and oppression, Frankenstein), however, the press began to vilify Wollstonecraft. As reactionary forces gathered in the wake of the failure of the French Revolution to produce the kind of apocalyptic social change its adherents had thought certain, Wollstonecraft’s work came to be ridiculed and her life treated as scandal: In time, she became an object lesson, a cautionary example of the dangers of female education and emancipation. As late as the 1940’s, it was still fashionable to ignore the sweeping, humanitarian vision of her work and to focus instead on her life and personality, portraying her as a shrill, man-hating neurotic whose vision was based on a contempt for all traditional values. Following the advent of the women’s movement in the 1960’s, however, feminist writers turned to Wollstonecraft for direction and inspiration, in the process demanding that she be judged for what she really was: a powerful force in the struggle for human freedom.