Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Mary Wollstonecraft: from Vindication of the Rights of Woman

claimed by Anjali Rodrigues

Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" was published in 1792 , again in the context of the French Revolution. This essay advocates the rights of women and recognizes how society pushed men into roles as oppressors and women into the roles of the oppressed. She criticizes women's use of coquetry and cunning  in their relationships with men, arguing that education for women is essential and necessary, because they are responsible for raising the next generation. She discusses the attributes associated with masculinity and femininity, and how women are expected to take on roles as weak, uneducated, and inferior, as opposed to men's roles as the dominant, power-wielding, superior gender. She encourages women to pursue nobler ambitions and for society to grant them the social, educational and political rights that are given to men. 

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