Review Of Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication Of The Rights Of Women

Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects in 1792. She wrote this book very quickly in order to respond to a pamphlet written by M. Talleyrand Périgord as well as other works written. Péigord writes specifically about education for boys only, and Wollstonecraft provides her argument against this. While it may come across that Wollstonecraft wants her audience to take action and give women education, when looking into her argument, she frames all the points by stating an uncommon idea (about education) and then taking it back or connecting it to current ideas in order for her audience to listen to her, she really just wishes for her audience to think about the idea of women

People were also in the mindset for a lot of change and are more willing to hear out reasoning due to the timing being during the Enlightenment period. However, they are still very used to and comfortable with traditional roles and expect this type of lifestyle to play the major role in Wollstonecraft’s argument. Her argument is more about being able to introduce the audience to the idea of women getting education as she knows her audience isn’t necessarily going to change how education is for women, but wants to introduce the idea in order for the audience to start thinking about women being more capable of basic things and thinking. Ultimately, Wollstonecraft’s argument of obtaining the audience's attention is effective because of her tendency to couch radical views in conservative language and premises due to her extensive understanding of her audience. We can see this idea being fed to the audience constantly in her writing, one can see this specifically when looking at her choice of words. A specific example occurs when she states “And, the mother will not neglect her children to practice the arts of coquetry, when sense and modesty secure her the friendship of her husband”