Mary Wollstonecraft
In two centuries where women have very little or no rights at all, Mary Wollstonecraft appeared as a claiming voice of feminism. In these male- dominated societies Wollstonecraft educated women and tried to vindicate their rights through one of the few areas where they could show their intelligence: literature. Scorned in her own day and for generations afterward due to the illegitimacy of her daughter, her free lifestyle, and her unorthodox opinions, Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) is today a feminist classic and she is honoured as an early English feminist foremother1. In Vindication Wollstonecraft applied the language of the French Revolution to women, scorned the inconsequential training of women common in her time, and advocated a real education for women, she applied radical principles of liberty and equality to sexual politics. Mary Wollstonecraft was a radical in the sense that she desired to bridge the gap between mankind's present circumstances and ultimate perfection. She was truly a child of the French Revolution and saw a new age of reason and benevolence close at hand2. Mary undertook the task of helping women to achieve a better life, not only for themselves and for their children, but also for their husb
In 1789 the French Revolution began which led to the beginning of a new epoch "in which immemorial misery, injustice, and constrictions were to be eradicated, and in which man had the power to reshape the world."8 Wollstonecraft, previously uninterested in politics, became inspired and radicalized by the improvements she now thought were possible for humanity. In 1790 she wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Men an essay expounding the humanitarian ideals brought forth by the French Revolution9. This inspired her to apply the rights of man to the woman's condition and in 1792 published the feminist social study A Vindication of the Right of Woman. This study was the first to make women's rights into a cause. Her demand for "JUSTICE for one-half of the human race" 10was too revolutionary but she did find a following among radicals and educated women and succeeded in beginning the trend toward regarding women as an important social force. Wollstonecraft was also more then a women's rights advocate, as she argued throughout her life for the rights of all people whom she felt had been assigned their roles in life according to false distinctions of class, age and gender. Mary argued that man cannot adequately represent woman and that his attempts to recreate woman as obedient and servile have resulted only in the creation of a society narrow in perspective and severely out of balance11. Although her unlimited efforts to equalize the people of her time, again it could be argued that her method of expression was unacceptable. Her "inexcusable" ways to educate others about her principles caused much uproar within the male dominated society. Her opinion lead to many disagreements within society, therefore questioning the effectiveness of her methods. During the 18th century there was little argument for civil and educational rights for women. There was more concern about racial matters than about women status and rights. When Mary Wollstonecraft wrote Vindication of the Right of Woman, she tried to fulfil this lack of civil and educational rights for women; this was a plea to give equality of opportunity to women. The education she promoted was a mixture of information and rational skills3. She stressed
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Approximate Word count = 1493
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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