Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

Daughter of English farmer o Father impoverished family fortunes o Resented that funds were used to educate her brother but were not spent on her own education Left home at 19 to become lady companion of wealthy widow In 1784, started a school with sister and friend Worked as a journalist in London Went to France in 1792 o Supported ideals of the Revolution o But was critical of revolutionary violence In France, had a daughter with American Gilbert Imlay Extramarital Affair with philosopher William Godwin o Married Godwin in 1797, after learning she was pregnant o Second daughter Mary born in 1797 Who was to marry poet P.B. Shelley and become Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein) o Died from complications related to Mary Godwins birth Major Works: o Mary: A Fiction (1787) Largely autobiographical novel o Vindicaton of the Rights of Man (1792) In rebuttal of Burkes Reflections on the Revolution in France o A Vindication on the Rights of Woman (1792) o An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution (1794) Condemned the violent turn of events in France while supporting Revolutionary ideals

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

Wollstonecraft sought to extend the liberating values of the Enlightenment to women as well as men o Argued that in order to be virtuous, women needed to be independent of men Rejected the admiration of feminine beauty o Since women would be intoxicated by the admiration o Thus they would not be able to cultivate their intellectual faculties And if women were treated as inferior beings, they would internalize their inferiority o This was the root cause of the oppression of women It was much better, thought Wollstonecraft, that women should not only have intellectual freedom, but material and financial freedom as well o BUT women are unwilling to strive for such independence because of the indolent calm of inferiority with which they have been intoxicated o This false weakness in turn necessitates them to be protected by men and provides a false justification for womens isolation from intellectual and financial life Wollstonecraft contended that men should free women from these bonds o Not only would that make it possible for women to achieve their full intellectual potential, o It would also allow them to achieve harmony in their familiar lives and be better mothers, wives, sisters and daughters She called for a revolution in gender roles o In which the hypocrisy of double standards between men and women would be put to an end o Since the relative social acceptance of male sexual promiscuity degraded men and women equally

o And equitable friendships between parents was sure to have a positive effect on childrens education In facilitating her changes, Wollstonecraft wanted government-funded co-educational schools formed o These would serve to teach students of both genders equality and a morality based on that equality o They would have, according to Wollstonecraft, the added benefit of early marriages Which would mitigate the debaucheries that were characteristic of young men Wollstonecraft, in her ideas as well as her lifestyle, was seen as a radical by most of her contemporaries o Her memoirs, published by Godwin after her death, served to further put a spotlight on her life and ideals and the scandalous revelations further tarnished her reputation o The conservative Victorian ideals and romanticism of the 19th century were in part a reactionary move away from her radically egalitarian ideas about gender equality o By the time of the second-wave feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century Wollstonescraft was finally seen as a luminary trailblazer in feminist thought

Discussion Questions:
1. On Page 82, Wollstonecraft suggests that the subjugation of women through the superficial admiration of her beauty results in a clash between her natural and artificial duties when in nature they all [ought to] harmonize. Which are the natural duties of a woman and what then are the artificial ones? 2. How is it, according to Wollstonecraft, that the most respectable women are the most oppressed (83)? 3. Does Wollstonecraft argue that it falls on men to break the bonds tying down women to their subservient positions? Does she give women any agency at all in their own emancipation? 4. What is the primary goal of Wollstonecraft in calling for womens emancipation? In other words, how will this intellectual, economic and legal equality achieve the betterment of society as a whole? 5. Wollstonecraft repeatedly mentions that the equitable changes that she is advocating will result in women becoming more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers (83). Keeping in mind her contemporary readership, why does Wollstonecraft highlight these particular gender roles?

6. In describing her proposed changes, what effect might Wollstonecrafts use of the word REVOLUTION have had on her readers? Would that effect have served to further or hinder the acceptance of her ideas? 7. Wollstonecraft concludes by saying, Let woman share the rights and she will emulate the virtues of man. Consider the limitations of such a statement yet, consider also why such limitations are understandable in her intellectual environment. 8. On Page 83, Wollstonecraft claims that few women aim at attaining this respectability that they should all strive for. What in society stops them from even having a desire to achieve it and has that situation changed and/or remained the same today?