Wollstonecraft's A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman

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Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is a statement of the rights of women to equality of education and to civil opportunities. In Wollstonecraft argues that true freedom demands equality of the sexes; claims that intellect, or reason, is larger to emotion, or passion. That seeks to influence women to gain the strength of mind and body; and aims to convince women that what had traditionally been observed as soft, “womanly” qualities are synonymous with weakness. Wollstonecraft supporters’ education as the key for women to achieve a sense of self-respect and a new self-image that can enable them to live to their full abilities. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman created an uproar upon its publication, but was then largely …show more content…
Wollstonecraft supporters for women "to acquire the qualities that ennoble a rational being, [that] a rough inelegant husband may shock her taste without destroying her peace of mind" (51). An educated woman can hold more classy conversations and be upfront with her husband, resulting in a more interesting companionship. Wollstonecraft believes that without education, a woman's greatest strength is physical and that she is "created to be the toy of man, his rattle, and must jingle in his ears whenever, dismissing reasons, he chooses to be amused" (56). An uneducated woman's greatest strength was her appearance and her ability to rouse a man. As an uneducated woman gets older, her level of physical appearance, lowers, which reduces her advantage to rouse her husband. After several years of marriage, the husband may have an affair if his wife is not as attractive and passionate and no longer interests in him. If all of a woman's power and appeal comes from sexual excitation rather than intellect, there will be more affairs and weaker marriages. Wollstonecraft considers "a master and mistress of a family ought not to continue to love each other with passion" (46), specifically if passion is the only fuel for a marriage. A woman must have another angle to keep her husband's interest. The education of women creates the opportunity for better female companions and
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