Vindication of the Rights of Women -- Mary Wollstonecraft

Author Bio: Mary Wollstonecraft is known as one of the first, if not the first, true feminist. She lived in England during the last half of the 18th century and was a large advocate for equality among the sexes. She was among the more radical thinkers of the time like Thomas Paine. The French Revolution was also a major event that shaped her views.

Context: Wollstonecraft enters in the latter part of the Age of Reason and some of her ideas were piggybacked off of previous philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Mary published this work to declare a war on inequality among the sexes. She believed that if there was no scientific evidence to back up that men had a higher capacity to reason than women, than men were not entitled to rule over women.

Summary: Wollstonecraft begins by lamenting on the lack of positions that women can fill outside of the home. A woman can become a teacher or a governess but she is still not treated as a highly educated being. She believes that if women had more opportunities to support themselves then they might not have to marry solely for financial reasons nor would they have to enter into prostitution to survive. She comments that if men would "snap our chains" then women would be better citizens in general. She believes that women may have different duties to fulfill than men but they are still human duties so they must be equal to men. Overall, Wollstonecraft believed that women could not progress and change their place in society unless they were granted equality.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Key Quotation: "There must be more equality established in society, or morality will never gain ground, and this virtuous equality will not rest firmly even when founded on a rock, if one half of mankind be chained to its bottom by fate, for they will be continually undermining it though ignorance or pride."