What position does Wollstonecraft take in "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman"?
In Mary Wollstonecraft's essay, "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman," published in 1792, the author takes the position that women are more than those who were made to be both "docile" and "obedient" (chap 2, para 3). She argues that women are raised by their mothers to be weak and "soft." This softness makes a woman no better than a "domestic animal" (chap 2, para 4). Furthermore, Wollstonecraft goes on to lament the position of women in relation to that of men. That is, men view women as weak and subservient, and society believes a woman's role is to care for her physical looks and obey her husband.
The author believes that education, a woman's upbringing, is the key to a woman gaining independence. This education is one based upon reason and understanding. Until women gain this education, they will not be able to take their proper place in society.
Perhaps the most important...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
position Wollstonecraft takes in this work, and the key argument she makes, is that women are fully capable of rational thought and are as deserving of education as men. Indeed, Wollstonecraft goes further to suggest that it is vital for women to be educated: only if they are educated can they be proper "companions" for their husbands. Moreoever, knowledge can not be fully advanced in society unless "truth [is] common to all." Wollstonecraft suggests that educated women are vital to ensure that children acquire knowledge as quickly and thoroughly as they should because women are the primary caregivers of children of both genders. As such, if young children are looked after by uneducated women they will be unable to fulfill their true potential. Additionally, women cannot serve as "companions" to men but serve rather a decorative function if they are ill-equipped to talk to their husbands due to a lack of equivalent education. As such, not only do women deserve an education because they are rational beings, society deserves to be comprised of educated women as well as educated men.
What is Wollstonecraft's view on men's perspective of women in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman?
British proto-feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women: With Strictures on Political and MoralSubjects (1792) in quick reaction to Charles Maurice de Tallyrand-Perigord's 1791 report to the French National Assembly in which he declared that women should receive no more than a domestic education (how to take care of a household).
Wollstonecraft responded to Perigord and other political and educational theorists of her time with her assertation that by allowing women to be educated, their children and husbands would benefit. Children of the nation would start off life with more knowledge, and men would have companions who could share intellectual interests. Women, she argued, should not be treated as ornaments or personal property, but as humans who deserve and can reach a much higher potential by being allowed an education.
How does Wollstonecraft address 17th and 18th century gender roles in "A Vindication of the Rights of Women"?
Your question seems to indicate that Mary Wollstonecraft was American and wrote in an American context. In fact, she was English and wrote this powerful essay based on her experience of being a woman in English society. Of course, many of the issues that she raises in this essay transfer over to America and the position of women there as well, as her essay investigates and comments upon the way that women are viewed by society and how the impression is that education will be somehow bad for them.
As far as gender roles are concerned, she actually argues against traditional ways of thinking about women, arguing that such ideas of femininity take away the dignity and strength of women. Note this summary of the purpose of Wollstonecraft's essay:
I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.
Wollstonecraft thus challenges conventional notions of femininity and of what it is to be a well-bred lady are fatally flawed, as these "accomplishments" are actually signs of weakness and will lead to contempt. The essay thus argues for a new kind of femininity that is based on intellect rather than such activities, and also argues that men should seriously rethink their impressions and expectations of women.