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Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Womens rights in the 18th century
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Amelia Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas to Edwin and Amy Otis Earhart. Amelia’s childhood was perfect until her father became an alcoholic in 1914, Amelia’s mother split with her husband and took her children with her, due to this Amelia didn’t have a relationship with her father; along the way they told her that she wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything because she was a woman. Amelia went to ten different high schools but graduated from Hyde Park high school in 1916, due to her father’s addiction to alcohol, Amelia never touch alcohol in her lifetime.-Neil Morris Amelia wasn’t very lady-like when she was little; she was very interested about women who had the same jobs as males; she participated in world war by volunteering as a nurse
As a woman striving for intellectual and philosophical pursuits, she challenges the stereotype of women as intellectually “inferior” to men. Moreover, Wollstonecraft strategically employs references to other influential thinkers and philosophers of her time, such as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. By aligning herself with prominent intellectuals, she positions her ideas within a broader philosophical context, making her arguments appear well-grounded and respected by her peers. This tactic further enhances her ethos and enhances the credibility of her
Wollstonecraft strongly believed,“...both sexes must act from the same principle…” (Doc D) Wollstonecraft strongly wanted both sexes to follow the same criteria and be given the same educational rights, so that women could be wiser and more virtuous. Wollstonecraft and Locke both believed that all should be equal and this supports that women are one of the groups besides religion that were not given as many rights as others. She also thought,“... women must be allowed to found their virtue on knowledge...to full fill their peculiar duties...to free them from all restraint…”
This book was actually published in the year of 1792 (one of the earliest feminist works) by Mary Wollstonecraft that touched on the philosophy of feminist. Mary mentioned that human’s greatest gift is able to Reason, including women. However, women were discouraged to receive education because it was thought “unnecessary” due to women only served as supplement for men. Thus, Mary argued for women’s education for the benefits of her family (Besides, how should a woman void of reflection be capable of educating her children? Ch 5, para 49) or even nation and they should enjoy equal rights with men.
In her document she claims that, “Women must be allowed to found their virtue on knowledge, which is scarcely possible unless they be educated by the same pursuits as men”(Wollstonecraft, On National Education). Wollstonecraft dynamically argued that if women had the right to study, they’d be able to prove they aren’t inferior by ignorance and low desires. Despite the fact that these four philosophers had contrasting ideas on how to enhance daily life, they all concentrated the same central idea. They each contributed something unique to their society, which has influenced our daily
The French Revolution introduced the western world to many enlightened ideas, by inverting societal and global conventions. These enlightened ideals applied to all white-Christian-men. In pursuit of liberty and equality, France’s National Assembly implemented the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizens, in 1789 (Perry, 100). This made all men equal under the law, transitioned into a secular nation by weakening clergy's hold on daily life, eliminated a monarchy, and established a governmental body that served to create a democratic parliamentary country. However, in this new revolutionized country, women did not find advancement easily.
“Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue” (Buddha). In “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” by Mary Wollstonecraft, the path to virtue is through true education and reason. The effects of virtue are illustrated through an enlightened mind, being morally upright, and being able to live a pleasant life. One achieves virtue when one truly understands what his or her education is for, to not only to be able to learn from today’s society, but also from mistakes made in mankind’s past and try to better it.
In the book, A Vindication to the Rights of Women, Wollstonecraft is able to express the beauty of a women, and express the humanly rights that we should preserve in order to keep an image of beauty. She expresses how women have the right to be praised for what she can do instead of what she looks like. She does not express rights in a political way, to bring to light how women are viewed as a weakness because women do not have the same strength that men have. Without diminishing a woman's beauty, she also demonstrates that women are naturally weaker, because that is how the woman was designed. A woman may be weaker in physical strength than a man, but through the intelligence and character each woman possesses, she be just as strong
In the book of vindication of the right of a woman, Wollstonecraft brings out clearly the roles of a woman in her society and how it has led to oppression of women (Wollstonecraft 22). Wollstonecraft believes that men and women are equal given the same environment and empowerment, women can do anything a man can do. In her society, education for women is only aimed at making her look pleasing to men. Women are treated as inferior being and used by men as sex objects. Wollstonecraft believed that the quality of mind of women is the same with that of men, and therefore women should not be denied a chance for formal education that will empower them to be equal with men.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman may not only be Mary Wollstonecraft’s call of action for the education of women, but also as her bringing attention to the gender inequality in England. Men are believed to be superior over women and Wollstonecraft wants society to overcome this stereotype because women are being treated as irrational human beings. She believes women should build up their own character and develop their own virtues to reach the same level of rationality as men. Women becoming educated is the way that society will be able to overcome the stereotype of female inferiority to men. This may only be the beginning of Wollstonecraft’s agenda to better the social position of women in English society and give them access to their
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A vindication of the rights of women written in 1792 can be considered one of the first feminist documents, although the term appeared much later in history. In this essay, Wollstonecraft debates the role of women and their education. Having read different thinkers of the Enlightenment, as Milton, Lord Bacon, Rousseau, John Gregory and others, she finds their points of view interesting and at the same time contrary to values of the Enlightenment when they deal with women’s place. Mary Wollstonecraft uses the ideas of the Enlightenment to demand equal education for men and women. I will mention how ideals of the Enlightenment are used in favor of men but not of women and explain how Wollstonecraft support her “vindication” of the rights of women using those contradictions.
A virtue, which is the rights of men and women. In order for women to obtain their natural rights to equality in society, a woman would have to gain an education. Early in her life, Wollstonecraft felt that an education was a cure to many of the disadvantages that faced the women of a time period where they were considered less articulated than men. A feminist leader of her time by opening a girl’s school at Newington Green to writing a book, “The Thoughts on the Education of Daughters.
Wollstonecraft argues for the rights of women in her A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects. She opposes that only men can receive education. Women are taught by their mother the knowledge of human weakness, “cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety” (2.2). They should be beautiful, then men will protect them. Wollstonecraft argues that women focus on being beautiful and stay indoors, they can’t really run reason because they depend on men.
Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in response to a report to the French National Assembly, which stated that women should only receive a domestic education (Johnson Lewis). She believed that women needed to be educated in order to find their way to equality with men. Wollstonecraft writes in the introduction: “The education of women has, of late, been more attended to than formerly; yet they are still reckoned a frivolous sex, and ridiculed or pitied by the writers who endeavor by satire or instruction to improve
Mary Wollstonecraft is a key figure in the early beginnings of the women’s rights movement. Wollstonecraft, born in 1759, in London, England, experienced firsthand the inequality and oppression expressed towards women during this time. Throughout her life, she fought against her odds and worked to create equality between genders. In her most well-known work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in 1792, Wollstonecraft argues a simple point: women should be as educated as men and be treated with the same respect. Her arguments are straightforward and understandable, which is why they have made such a huge difference in the way women have been viewed and treated.
