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A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
by Mary Wollstonecraft
Writing in an age when the call for the rights of man had brought revolution to America and France, Mary Wollstonecraft produced her own declaration of female independence in 1792. Passionate and forthright, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman attacked the prevailing view of docile, decorative femininity, and instead laid out the principles of emancipation an equal education for girls and boys, an end to prejudice, and for women to become defined by their profession, not their partner. Mary Wollstonecraft’s work was received with a mixture of admiration and outrage – Walpole called her ‘a hyena in petticoats’ – yet it established her as the mother of modern feminism.
A Vindication of the Rights of woman - edition by Mary Wollstonecraft. Health, Fitness & Dieting eBooks @ .
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A Vindication of the Rights of woman - edition by Mary Wollstonecraft. Health, Fitness & Dieting eBooks @ . Reviews
This book is simply amazing for the author's thinking on women's rights (and responsibilities). I can't believe that such a forward thinking woman was writing in the 1700s. Her clear view of women's rightful position in society, as opposed to their actual position, is made evident at every turn. Her ideas on education - for girls and boys - must have seemed bizarre for her time, but her arguments in favour of her theories are sound and endorsed by modern education philosophies. My only criticism is that she is verbose and repetitious and some of her sentences are over a page long! Well punctuated and quite correct as to grammar, they seem to go on and on. I loved this book and have written down many quotes to keep. One in particular, where she describes foolish women foregoing the joys and duties of motherhood and marriage as chasing the ephemeral "pleasures that sit lightly on the wing of time". What a delightful turn of phrase!
A tedious read bogged down with the florid prose of its time. It is feminist, so it is indulgently victim oriented. She sees no positives in women being more loved, only negatives in women being less respected. She holds the masculine solely responsible and makes her plea for men alone to "fix" the problem. Blind to Woman's efficacy, she doesn't see the degree to which women's own choices create women's predicaments.
But she gets one thing right that subsequent feminism gets wrong. She may not grasp how female power makes Woman equal partner in the human system, equally responsible for outcomes, but she gets it that female power is the root cause of women's issues. She gets it that women in general can best be compared with elite royalty in the way that they are both empowered to go passive. Little is demanded of them. They are both spoiled. In my own words, they are both the "victims of a trust fund." She gets that it's women's *innate* value, power and privilege that inhibits women's ambition.
Here you get the standard false premise---men have the power; women are the victims---that plagues all femininism. But in the mix Wollstonecraft expresses many truths about female power and privilege that the coming ideological dictatorship will render forbidden. So, if you want to see this flicker of female accountability before it was snuffed out, read this book.
This book was mentioned in Founding Mothers, by Cokie Roberts, as an essential piece of writing from the mid 1700s. So I tried to read it. It is a long and rambling diatribe against the fact that women of the time, or at least the upper class ones, were valued not for themselves, their ideas or their common sense, but as decorative and submissive male appendages, for ever prevented from attaining their true potential (and values more for youth and beauty than more lasting assets). Oddly, the impression from reading "Founding Mothers" mothers, about the women behind the men who broke from England to form the United States, was of an intrepid and capable bunch of women, quite unlike the most of the 'ladies/women' portrayed in this famous early-feminist lecture.
It's dreadful to read at times because it kind of makes you want to travel back in time and slap some sense into men and how dreadful the patriarchal system was. BUT... It's a great book. I bought it for my thesis on the patriarchal system in Regency England and this book, while showing Mary Wollstonecraft's very clear point of view on her society, provides a lot of information and detail that shows what life was like at that time (or a few years before, but it's basically the same era). A must if you're into history, women's rights or the likes.
If you're thinking about getting it for a paper or thesis or something, go for it.
Its nice not to have to trudge through a read. My norm seems to be expletive-laced grumbling while the last page can't come soon enough. Wollstonecraft has been a breath of fresh air. I have to admit that I went into it with bias. I've read so many male philosophers, probably because women at the time weren't taken seriously, as what happened with Wollstonecraft and the ridicule she received. I was nervous that it was going to be trite and overly emotional. It was an extraordinary blend of reason and sentiment.
Her style is poetic. At times, it feels it almost has a sing-song way about it. Her ability reminds me of Jane Austen and makes it very hard to put the book down. I wonder how much Austen lifted from Wollstonecraft considering there was a section on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice.
Her philosophy is intriguing. Wollstonecraft was quite ahead of her time. She felt that women were trapped in an eternal childhood in the way they were treated by their other halves. This left them unable to be good wives much less good mothers. She makes the argument that not only can women reason, but they can be employed in any field. She envisions a time where boys and girls, rich or poor, can be educated together.
As an aside, I don't think the public school system has worked out so well. I attended a joke of a school. That is why I am grateful to have the opportunity to homeschool. Even if you disagree with her assessment that children should be publicly educated, her main point is that boys and girls alike can be educated the same. She actually advocated for a private/public school mix. I'm not sure that our modern day system would meet her vision at all.
The crème de la crème? Pages upon pages of attacks on Rousseau. I think I've formed a personal vendetta against Rousseau so when she blasts his inane philosophy for nearly 1/3 of the book, it could only bring a sense of sweet justice. If you're no fan of Rousseau, its worth the read just for that. Ya know, the guy who created Civil Religion. The guy who wrote books about how children should be educated then abandoned all 5 of his newborn children to a foundling hospital. The guy who said women were created for his pleasure. Yeah, its a pretty epic takedown. Enjoy.
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