A Vindication of the rights of Woman is Wollstonecraft's
fundamental work where she outlines feminism and her view on the rights of women. It is
often spoken as her most important work and the first definitive work on the subject.
The themes include:
1. the importance of education and the
importance that women be given a more liberal education.
2.
There should be more treatises on the nature and existence of gender
differences.
3. Rosseau, a contemporary philosopher, argues
that women should be taught to obey and please, only educated enough to please men.
Wollstonecraft argued vehemently against this.
4.
Wollstonecraft also argued against Edmund Burke (he argued that men should govern
themselves) using the problems the working classes experienced as her
ammunition.
5. Using the recent admission of the time that
women had souls (!!!!) she uses the following
argument:
She
asserts that because women are immortal beings who have a relationship to their creator,
they must be educated in the proper use of reason. She believes that the quality that
sets humans apart from animals is reason, and the quality that sets one human apart from
another is virtue. Rousseau argues that emotion is the preeminent human quality;
Wollstonecraft contends that humans have passions so they can struggle against them and
thereby gain self-knowledge. From God’s perspective, the present evil of the passions
leads to a future good from the struggle to overcome them. The purpose of life for all
humans, not just men, is to perfect one’s nature through the exercise of reason. This
leads to knowledge and virtue, the qualities God wishes each person to gain. It is,
therefore, immoral to leave women in ignorance or formed merely by the prejudices of
society. An education that develops the mind is essential for any ...
creature.
Wollstonecraft was
the first preemminent "feminist" who struggled to ensure that women were perceived as
"rational" as well as primarily "emotional."
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