Response to "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" - Mary Wollstonecraft

Response to “A vindication of the rights of woman” – Mary Wollstonecraft

Ahead of her time, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was one of the earlier women to begin speaking (writing) out against the societal depression of her sex. And yet, she poses a rational argument untainted by rash defensive emotion, as one might rightfully expect of the (especially early) feminists. Wollstonecraft legitimizes her argument by first presenting the facts of the current state of women in society, then acknowledging the probable physiological origins of this disparity, before finally addressing how she believes women need to combat their current inferiority. I find this last bit especially compelling; she does not weakly cry out for men to change their ways and lower themselves in relation to women, but rather calls out to members of her own sex to affect change within their own lives. Nevertheless, she is clearly heavily invested in her cause, and attacks the situation violently, saying: “Women are rendered weak and wretched by a variety of concurring causes, originating from one hasty conclusion…strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty and…after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade.” This rendering may have its roots in women’s apparent physical inferiority, which makes them dependent to some degree on men in various situations. However, Wollstonecraft is eager to assert that this inferiority, this dependence, should not be increased by prejudices. Men, in their natural dominance, “have been more anxious to make [women] alluring mistresses than affectionate wives and rational mothers,” and women, intoxicated by the attention this affords them, respond by conforming to this role as accurately as possible, thus creating self-fulfilling feminine inferiority.

Within her argument, she pays most attention to the middle class, pointing out that the rich are an extreme example: “As a class of mankind they have the strongest claim to pity; the education of the rich tends to...