Analysis Of The Vindication Of The Rights Of Women By Mary Wollstonecraft

The 18th and 19th centuries were a time of immense social change across the European continent as the Enlightenment took hold and France immersed itself in revolution. The impact of these events was amplified by a flood of documents declaring the undeniable rights and equality of man. However, the documents contained an inherent hypocrisy. The highly praised authors had neglected to award any dignities or justices to women. In response, the female writers of the time released their own declarations of rights, and pointed out just how unequal their position was. One of these documents, The Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft, argues for the equality of the sexes and against the male need to suppress women. Her initial

A woman was expected to be educated in things that could bring joy to her husband or family, such as drawing, piano, cross-stitch and other domestic crafts. This schooling allowed her to use shallow skills without becoming “overly stimulated by knowledge” (Wollstonecraft, p. 46). Women were to avoid complex subjects such as math and politics (Nightingale, p. 31) to preserve their innocence as moral centers for their homes. According to Wollstonecraft, education was central to a woman’s growth as it "will slowly sharpen the senses, form the temper, regulate the passions as they begin to ferment, and set the understanding to work before the body arrives at maturity” (Wollstonecraft, p. 44). Without this intellectual development, women were unable (or believed themselves unable) to think or act autonomously and left them increasingly dependent on the males in their lives. Wollstonecraft emphasizes the perversion of this dependence by arguing that since women have a soul and were created by God, they were given the same gift of reason as man; therefore they have the ability to educate themselves and produce their own income (Wollstonecraft, p. 47). Any perceived lack of intellect was generated by man and forced upon them so that did not believe themselves capable, furthering a childlike

This ascribed identity is the result of restrictions placed on her by domesticity and the female oppression that weakened and upset her normal course of development. Through tyrannical marriages, her confidence would be shattered and she would be entirely dependent upon her husband; even surrendering control of her body to him. In education, she would be taught to be obedient and superficial so that she would remain dependent in the domestic sphere and serve as a decorative object for her husband. She was kept of out of working professions to force a sense of respectability on her and prevent her from using the intellect and talent she was born with. All of these mistreatments impacted some portion of middle-class life that prevented women from living the same quality of life as men. Therefore, the domesticity described by these two women was used to justify a forced subjugation that disrupted the natural progression of female intelligence, and