However, both differed in expressing their opinion concerning women's roles and feminism. Wollstonecraft believed that women had been suppressed and not given the privilege to acquire good formal and formative educations, while Rousseau believed that women were not hindered by society to receive education, and they can do so if they only willed themselves to achieve it.

             Presentation, analysis, and discussion of these arguments are supported with texts from Wollstonecraft's "Vindication of the rights of women" and Rousseau's "Emile.".

             Wollstonecraft and Rousseau presented similar arguments when they discussed the issue of how society should develop and implement education for children and the youth. Both acknowledged the fact that formal education is important, although its state (in the 18th century) leaves more to be desired; in fact, they cited the deficiencies that formal education can have to people's learning and intellectual and moral development. They believed that formal education must include formative education, which means people must not only learn through accumulation of facts and information in schools and educational institutions, but also learn through constant interaction with other people. The youth must learn not only from within the walls of the classroom, but in the real world as well.

             Rousseau expressed his strong belief in formative education in "Emile." In fact, the creation of the discourse itself was meant to critique and analyze the state of formal education as Rousseau observed it during his time. One of his critiques against formal education is that it tended to provide knowledge that is 'quite limited,' even "censored" for the students. In expressing his disagreement against "censored" material used in teaching students, he stated, "[t]he literature and science of our century tend to destroy rather than to build up. When we censor others we take on the tone of a pedagogue.