A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman

A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman will help you make the world a more fair place by teaching some of the gender inequalities of the eighteenth century.

Even from the start of the Bible with Adam and Eve, we get an idea that women exist for men’s entertainment. And for most of human history, they have existed as the second sex. Wollstonecraft says that in order to have a fair society, this notion needs to change.

Her first proposal on how to do this is for women to have better representation. One way to do this would be for women to have a bigger voice in literature. She argues that because men have always been able to show their view on women, this enabled them to perpetuate the idea that women are inferior to men.

Women on the other hand, have not been able to have this freedom of expression and voice their disagreement. And if they did, it would be considered unladylike. Furthermore, she says women should have more access to materials that help them think critically rather than mind-numbing stories.

Women also need better representation within the government. When the government is comprised of just men, they tend to fail to even think of women’s rights. Rather than a focus on appearance and grace, they should be able to reason and show their intellectual power. Without these things, women are put at a disadvantage because they can’t achieve the respect that men can have for each other.

What is the reason that girls aren’t able to do the same things as boys? Is it because of some sort of inferiority? Or is it because they are taught they aren’t equal, and this lesson is perpetuated their whole lives?

Wollstonecraft says that in order to combat this, girls should be allowed to go to a public school with the boys and participate in all the same subjects. Not only that, but girls should stop being discouraged from exercises of physical strength.

Girls are told to play with dolls indoors, while boys are encouraged to play outside, helping them build physique from a young age. She says this division only serves to increase the physical advantage that boys already have over girls. The difference would be much less marked if they could also play in physical ways.

A society that exaggerates the strength difference between men and women does this to ensure girls are dependent on boys. The emphasis on little girls dressing up dolls to look pretty as play seems to further the idea that looks are the most important pursuit for a woman.