In your plan: Week 32, Wed, 26 May 2027.
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Overview
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in 1792 by Mary Wollstonecraft, argues that women appear intellectually and morally weaker than men because they are given a poor education and trained to please, not because nature made them so. She calls for a national system of schooling open to both sexes, for women to be treated as rational beings, and for marriage based on friendship and respect. It is a foundational text of liberal feminism and a case study in using Enlightenment arguments against the exclusions of the Enlightenment itself.
Context
The French Revolution had raised questions about rights, and Wollstonecraft had already replied to Burke in A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790). In Britain, girls were generally taught accomplishments rather than serious subjects, and married women had almost no independent legal standing. The book answers writers such as Rousseau, whose Emile educated girls to serve and please men, and is dedicated to the French politician Talleyrand.
Read the full guide: chapter summaries, competing interpretations, key terms
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Curator's notes
- Why it matters
- Women appear inferior because they are denied education, not by nature.
- Use in training and coaching
- Gender equity in education and workplaces
- Connects to
- Rousseau (rebuttal); Mill; Beauvoir
- What to read
- Chapters 2–3
- Text (date)
- Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
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