Born April 27, 1759, in London, Mary Wollstonecraft was a writer, philosopher, and advocate of education for girls and women. Her most famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, was published in 1792. She wrote this as a response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution, in which Burke argued for the preservation of traditional men's rights. Wollstonecraft went further and suggested aggressively that women should also have similar and equal rights as men.
Some of her ideas included: free education for boys and girls; that women should be educated, too, because women are the ones raising children and, therefore, should be rational not emotional; women should be able to make a living and support themselves; women should not be thought merely as ornaments for the pleasure of men; women should be permitted to enter the fields of politics and medicine; women should be able to speak their minds without being labeled as masculine; and if women are to be shamed for sex outside of marriage, then men should be, too.
I invite readers to join me in discovering the "outrageous" ideas of Mary Wollstonecraft.
This is the next book on the WEM histories list, and I am looking forward to it. It is under 250 pages and should take less than a month to read. If you can read 60 pages a week, you can do this. Since Wollstonecraft's 260th birthday is in April, we'll start on the first.
Reading/Discussion Schedule (April 1-30)
Week One: Dedication and Introduction, plus Chapters I-III (April 7 Discussion Post)
Week Two: Chapters IV-V (April 14 Discussion Post)
Week Three: Chapters VI-XI (April 21 Discussion Post)
Week Four: Chapters XII-XIII (April 30 Wrap-up Discussion Post)*
*April 30th is a Tuesday; therefore, I may post the final discussion on Monday the 29th instead, so as to not interfere with #TopTenTuesday.
If you are interested, grab a copy of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and join me at this blog or on Twitter (@GreatBookStudy) for connections and discussion posts. Comment today if you plan to read-along.
Use #WollstonecraftReadAlong on Twitter.
P.S. After staring at this book cover for months, I did not see until today that it is Vindications of the Rights of WOMAN, not Women. But it is too much work to change it on my announcement, so...I shall have to live with that flaw forever. So be it.
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Dedication
In the dedication, Mary Wollstonecraft pleaded her case for independent, principled, respectable women everywhere, and suggested the best way to achieve this was through education. She demanded an investigation into the arguments that she laid out in A Vindication, as they were expected to revise a constitution of rights (for men), in France.
This was my favorite quote from the dedication:
In this work I have produced many arguments, which to me were conclusive, to prove that the prevailing notion respecting a sexual character was subversive of morality, and I have contended, that to render the human body and mind more perfect, chastity must universally prevail, and that chastity will never be respected in the male world till the person of a woman is not idolized...
Introduction
In her introduction, Wollstonecraft suggested the conflict: either men and women are naturally and sharply different or civilization has proven to be extremely biased, of which she blamed parents and schools. Hence, women were treated as weaker in mind, incapable of comprehension, and groomed for more shallow and superficial ideals. Girls were taught to emulate softness, which was later considered contemptuous by the male society.
The author complained that education for women was not taken seriously, and that women could only rise in the world through marriage. Without education, how could women govern families and teach their children? Women were taught to be too dependent on men. And if women were only considered objects of desire, what would be her state when her beauty is gone?
Wollstonecraft was anxious to share her reasoning, and readers will recognize her trepidation. She admitted to jumping from one idea to the other because a thought had come to her and she needed to record it hastily. She was not concerned with her words as much as her point, which was to consider how civilization treated girls and women in order to raise up respectable future members of society.
Chapter One
In chapter one, the author laid out her arguments clearly: reason places humans higher than animals; virtues makes one man better than another; and passions are for men to exercise restraint, which in turn makes for stronger character. Here she began her many arguments with Rousseau, the French philosopher, who thought we should all return to our natural state as animals. Wollstonecraft contended that God gave us reason and experience to overcome our temptations and weaknesses, "to better our nature."
Chapter Two
In chapter two, Wollstonecraft makes the point that women have souls and are capable of attaining their own virtues, just as men do. But because women are taught from infancy to rely solely on their husbands, they are not expected or taught to think for themselves.
Rightly, she disagreed with Rousseau that women should be only educated to please men. She said a woman will "find her charms are oblique sunbeams, and that they cannot have much effect on her husband's heart when they are seen every day, when the summer is passed and gone." This will only bring bitterness to her heart. Better to fully develop her mind and grow in her potential, contributing to her marriage in her later years, when love may develop into friendship.
I love this quote from chapter two:
I own it frequently happens that women who have fostered a romantic unnatural delicacy of feeling, waste their lives in imagining how happy they should have been with a husband who could love them with a fervid increasing affection every day, and all day...That a proper education; or, to speak with more precision, a well-stored mind, would enable a woman to support a single life with dignity...
Wollstonecraft believed that boys and girls should be educated with the same quality education, "an exercise of understanding as is best calculated to strengthen the body and form the heart. Or...to enable the individual to attain such habits of virtue as will render it independent."
The author said that "Nature, or....God, has made all things right; but man has sought him out many inventions to mar the work." In other words, God made his Creation perfect; man (and woman) corrupted everything, including man's relationship with women. Friendship is the best relationship one could have, but man has ruined it by belittling women and making her his self-centered object of pleasure, even in that sacred union called marriage.
Chapter Three
Continuing the same subject, Wollstonecraft recognized that men are physically stronger, and this made men appear superior to women; but women should not brag about their physical weaknesses either. Nonetheless, knowledge should be equal in nature and degree for both, and women should be recognized as moral, rational and virtuous, as well.
The author rejected Rousseau's consistent focus on women's natural weaknesses and declared that if mothers wanted their girls to have dignity, they must reject Rousseau's ideas. Wollstonecraft believed that girls were shaped in their youth to endure an upbringing that left them no choice; many writers made a mistake and assumed it was nature that made them that way. But the author argued that
...a girl, whose spirits have not been damped by inactivity, or innocence tainted by false shame, will always be a romp, and the doll will never excite attention unless confinement allows her no alternative. Girls and boys...would play harmlessly together, if the distinction of sex was not inculcated long before nature makes any difference.
Here is a good argument...and I like this quote, too,
Taught from their infancy that beauty is a woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison. Men have various employments and pursuits which engage their attention, and give a character to the opening mind; but women, confined to one, and having their thoughts constantly directed to the most insignificant part of themselves, seldom extend their views beyond the triumph of the hour.
Men are free to pursue multiple interests, but women are burdened and trapped by the one superficial, fleeting treasure they think they have.
Wollstonecraft declared,
It is time to effect a revolution in female manners - time to restore to them their lost dignity - and make them, as a part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the world. It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local manners. - It men be demi-gods - why let us serve them!
This was her call once again for women to be educated in the same ideals as men. After all, does a man not desire excellence in a wife, as he would anything else?
Finally, the author states again that men and women should be considered equal; that they have different duties, nonetheless, they are human duties, and the principles in applying human duties are the same for both men and women.
IMHO
This was just the tip of the iceberg. I could have said more, but it would have been too long. Sunday is almost over, and I said I would have this up on 4/7. So I posted some questions, and I will answer them here and then give you an opportunity to opine.
I already shared some of my favorite arguments and quotes, but there are still so many left. I am G.U.I.L.T.Y. of believing in the natural differences between males and females; I do not completely agree with the author. But when she discussed girls "having a romp" (see quote above), I knew she was absolutely right. This is such a good thing for girls. While I still think that males and females have specific natural appeals, I do not think it is wrong to encourage children to follow their own individual interests and let them develop in liberty. Modern society has changed a lot in this area.
I had a hard time reading through this work because it is so complex. For a woman who received a poor education, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote like a professor, even if was verbose. She claimed to be rushed and meant to rewrite or edit, which never happened. I am not complaining about the writing style, but it took some effort to come to comprehension. She also admitted to jumping around a lot, and the cohesion was sometimes missing. Nonetheless, so far I am appreciating it.
Chapter Four
In this and the next chapter, Wollstonecraft covered numerous topics, of which I will attempt to focus on some important ones.
The author explained that the simplest way to improve yourself is through reason, or knowing how to discern truth, which is her evidence for the universal education of women.
But some men and women see education incorrectly: that it is not for the perfection of one's character, but for the preparation for life's work only. And since women are taught to exist for the pleasure of men, they draw all of their power from their beauty, which, as I have said before, is quite temporary.
Confined then in cages like the feathered race, they have nothing to do but to plume themselves, and stalk with mock majesty from perch to perch. It is true they are provided with food and raiment for which they neither toil nor spin; but health, liberty, and virtue, are given in exchange.
Wollstonecraft said again that women were treated like children, unable to care or think for themselves. She did not believe men should show "respect" by doing for a woman what she was perfectly and physically able to do for herself, like "lift a handkerchief or shut a door."
Another observation she wrote that men were educated for a future profession, developing necessary reason and character, while marriage was an option after all else was achieved; yet, for women, marriage was the only focus of attention and hope for their future.
About sensuality and emotions, the author believed that women, like both sexes of the rich, "have acquired all the follies and vices of civilization, and missed the useful fruit." They had been "weakened by false refinement that, respecting morals, their condition is much below what it would be were they left in a state nearer to nature." This caused women to be unstable, contradictory, and fleeting in emotion, unable to use reason and good judgment. Women were considered weak emotional creatures, "a mixture of madness and folly." No wonder they were treated like children.
Wollstonecraft was in favor of educating women as men are educated, not so women could be like men or even have power over men, but rather, "so women may have power over themselves," to think independently and to be morally and virtuously accountable.
Without knowledge there can be no morality.
If women were expected to educate their children and manage a household, "...reason [was] absolutely necessary to enable a woman to perform any duty properly; and...sensibility is not reason." Meanwhile, some believed a woman's power was her sensibility, which was a great disservice to women and the men who would eventually marry them.
Wollstonecraft did respect marriage and referred to it as the "foundation of almost every virtue," but she did not agree that love and friendship could exist together. I think she meant lust, not love, because she called love "an animal appetite," which eventually expired. (Sounds like lust to me.)
Finally, the author ended this chapter with concern for the idleness of young women who had few employments to keep their minds occupied and distracted from their emotions, permitting men to "enslave women."
Chapter Five
Chapter five was so long, but this is where Wollstonecraft called out writers who objectified women.
The first was Rousseau who believed women to be naturally agreeable and that their education should keep them passive and weak, whereas men, being stronger, should rule over them. He said they should be educated according to their particular "temperament or character, tastes and inclinations." Rousseau wrote:
Woman and men were made for each other; but their mutual dependence is not the same. The men depend on the women only on account of their desires; the women on the men both on account of their desires and their necessities: we could subsist better without them than they without us.
(And I said, "Whoa!")
He also wrote:
...the education of the women should be always relative to the men. To please, to be useful to us, to make us love and esteem them, to educate us when young, and take care of us when grown up, to advice, to console us, to render our lives easy and agreeable: these are the duties of women at all times, and what they should be taught in their infancy.
(I'll just leave that there.)
Rousseau believed that women should learn restraint so that they may easily be obedient to their husbands, and Wollstonecraft warned that an oppressive environment would push a woman to adultery. Rousseau also advised women to prolong their seduction within the marriage to make it last longer because love in marriage is otherwise short lived.
The second writer, Dr. Fordyce, encouraged women to behave meekly and gracefully, while Wollstonecraft asked why they could not be taught true grace, which was an independent mind.
Personally speaking, this Dr. had many misunderstandings about women. He was surprised that women complained when husbands left them alone or were indifferent towards them; Dr. Fordyce blamed the women for not being more respectful, obedient, or tender! Wollstonecraft argued that it was not perfect behavior that captured a husband's heart, but "esteem, the only lasting affection, can alone be obtained by virtue supported by reason. It is respect for understanding that keeps alive the tenderness for the person."
The next writer was Dr. Gregory Legacy. He was complicated because his advice appeared pleasant and careful, but Wollstonecraft called it dangerous toward "morality and manners of the female world." Legacy believed women should withhold knowledge so as not to appear superior to men. Instead, the author shared:
Make the heart clean, and give the head employment, and I will venture to predict that there will be nothing offensive in the behavior.
Dr. Legacy also advised women to focus on their beauty, something Wollstonecraft always wrote sharply in opposition.
In a fourth section, the author encouraged readers to submit to the authority of reason.
The being who can govern itself has nothing to fear in life...
She then referenced particular women who supported the ideas of writers like Rousseau. One woman admitted that, "All our arts are employed to gain and keep the heart of man..." Another woman agreed with Rousseau for encouraging women to be idols of adoration. How many times does Wollstonecraft have to say that beauty cannot keep men's attentions for very long?
In the final section, Wollstonecraft discussed how an education of experience may improve one's character, and she argued how wrong it was to withhold the knowledge of the world, including very difficult truths, from young people. She said,
A knowledge at this period of the futility of life...if obtained by experience, is very useful, because it is natural;
She also added warnings for moderations, creating idols, passions, prejudices, and habits. And she ended, you cannot be both moral and worldly; you must choose one road.
IMHO
Wow, this one felt long to me, but it was full of great insight hat caused me to rethink some of my own prejudices. She expounded deeper on opinions and ideas from the first three chapters, so some of her remarks may seem repetitive.
One of my prejudices that I struggle with is this: I believe in masculine and feminine traits. Where do they begin and where do they end? Wollstonecraft may not be arguing these ideas, per se, but there may be some cross over. Where she encouraged girls to exercise their bodies and be strong, I thought about how God designed us: He did design us to be physically strong, to a degree, even if it is not equivalent to masculine strength; hence there can be nothing wrong with women exercising our bodies to their fullest potential. Yet, for so long I accepted that a woman could not do work that required physical strength because it was for a man to do. This is just plain silly on my part, and I will never look at it this way again, nor will I require it of my girls. That is just one example of how this book is enhancing my silly notions.
Discussion Questions
How about you? Are any Wollstonecraft's ideas changing the way you think? Is there anything you disagree with, even some of her slight comments about minor details that I did not bring up? She had some odd things to say about polygamy.
Share a favorite quote.
Prior to reading this work thus far, did you know anything about Jacques Rousseau? If so, what was your opinion about him before? Has it changed any now? What works of his did you read? Would you be interested in reading anything by him in the future?
What do you think of her argument that love (or lust, I think) diminishes in marriage and why equality should exist so that a woman is her husband's friend, equal in ability to reason and discern?
(I actually believe lust diminishes, as maturity in love grows deeper. Love is more of an act than an emotion, even though we use it as such.)
Chapters 6
Chapter six was about early education, of which Wollstonecraft recognized as essential to forming a child's character. Unfortunately, early education for girls treated them as "defects in nature," incapable of understanding deep issues. Girls were taught to be self-focused, which encouraged them to seek after attention. Women were consumed with thinking only of love, like they could not live without it.
Chapter 7
This chapter covered modesty, both of behavior and mind. Girls were taught modest outward behavior but not "purity of mind." If a woman's thoughts were
Make the heart clean, let it expand and feel for all that is human, instead of being narrowed by selfish passions...
The author argued that modesty must be maintained by both sexes, not just women alone. And she also talked about discretion, especially of personal privacy, like our bodies and bodily functions.
Chapter 8
In this chapter, Wollstonecraft focused on morality and maintaining a good reputation, which was important, but not when it consumed your every thought, as women were persuaded. Furthermore, according to Wollstonecraft, men were the ones who did not control their appetites; therefore, until men did, things may not become better for either sex.
Chapter 9
Wollstonecraft argued for equality in society and class. Women dependent on men, especially wealthy women, became "cunning, mean, and selfish" because they were more concerned with their personal attentions than their roles as mother.
On the one hand she complained that mothers passed their children off to nurses to raise up their babies, yet she also argued that women should be financially independent of men, able to enter politics and other professional fields. I would like to interject here that today women have these options to enter the workforce, and mothers are still sending their babies off to nurses to be raised; we call it daycare. So how has that helped?
Her point was that if men would "snap our chins, and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more observant..., more affectionate....., more faithful...., more reasonable..., better citizens."
We should love them with true affection, because we should learn to respect ourselves; and the peace of mind of a worthy man would not be interrupted by the idle vanity of his wife, nor the babes sent to nestle in a strange bosom, having never found a home in their mother's.
Chapter 10
Wollstonecraft claimed that parental affection was more like self-worship, in which children were perfect mirrors of their parents. She also believed that parental affection led to tyranny because parents expected total blind obedience of their children. And she also reminded us that mothers needed "good sense and independence of mind," not completely dependent on their husbands, to raise up descent children. She needed to autonomously know how to govern her household and manage her children.
Chapter 11
Finally, in this chapter, the author discussed duty to parents. Again, she noted parental tyranny. She believed that people, including parents, should be granted respect because of their virtue instead of automatic submission. Yes, children should be taught to obey parents until they were able to use good judgment themselves; but as soon as possible, they should be taught to obey reason.
The affections of children, are always selfish; they love their relatives, because they are beloved by them, and not on account of their virtues. Yet, till esteem and love are blended together....and reason made the foundation, morality will stumble at the threshold.
Chapter Twelve
This chapter focused on national education. Wollstonecraft was in support of a national day school, in which children of both sexes and different classes mixed together and learned the same objective, to discover how to "think for themselves."
The author disliked boarding schools or teaching at home, especially because she did not agree with the results: the way students turned out lazy and hardened. She took issue with Catholicism because she believed the customs to be burdensome and empty, but believed students should be encouraged to read God's word for themselves.
She thought public education should teach students to be equally and morally good citizens.
Public education...should be directed to form citizens; but if you wish to make good citizens, you must first exercise the affections of a son and a brother. This is the only way to expand the heart; for public affections, as well as public virtues, must ever grow out of the private character, or they are merely meteors that shoot athwart a dark sky, and disappear as they are gazed at and admired.
She disagreed with rote memory and recitation. She believed these only encouraged students to exhibit vanity, and it did not teach them to understand what they memorized.
Wollstonecraft wanted boys and girls to go to school together because she believed "females acquired bad habits when they [were] shut up together..." as well as boys in the same situation. She added that if marriage was the foundation of society, so should males and females be educated together. Here is more:
Nay, marriage will never be held sacred till women, by being brought up with men, are prepared to be their companions rather than their mistresses;
So convinced am I of this truth, that I will venture to predict that virtue will never prevail in society till the virtues of both sexes are founded on reason; and till the affections common to both are allowed to gain their due strength by the discharge of mutual duties.
If males and females were educated together, this would prepare both to be friends, not just lovers. Also, coeducation would promote early marriage. Single people lived primarily for themselves, whereas marriage encouraged selflessness.
Other educational issues the author addressed were strict discipline and school uniforms, which would prevent vanity, especially since girls were distracted by fashion. She also shared an ambitious list of subjects all students should study: botany, mechanics, astronomy, reading, writing, arithmetic, natural history, natural philosophy, gymnastics in the open air, religion, history, anthropology, and politics taught in the socratic form.
Some other quotes from this chapter:
But the sexual weakness that makes women depend on man for sustenance, produces a kind of cattish affection which leads a wife to purr about her husband as she would about any man who fed and caressed her.
Make [women] free, and they will quickly become wise and virtuous, as men become more so; for the improvement must be mutual...
Chapter Thirteen
In this final chapter, Wollstonecraft blamed a woman's ignorance on her lack of good education. For that, women did not have proper knowledge about health or their bodies; they believed lies and were superstitious and cheated out of their money to pay imposters to treat them and their children.
The author also complained that women read "stupid" romance novels, corrupting their taste, and giving them a false sense of truth. She also blamed women for desiring to be cheaply entertained so that they did not have to focus on history (or other ideas). Women, she suggested, should "ridicule" these novels and choose to "read something superior."
Wollstonecraft addressed the fashion issue again and said that because women were "situated...to be rivals," they could be petty about how other women dressed. This was also because women had nothing worthy to discuss, unlike men who talked about business and politics.
There were additional short sections: one dedicated to a woman's sensibility and another on raising children. Then she wrapped up her main argument in a final section, that women must be educated...because: "it is obvious that we are little interested about what we do not understand."
Wollstonecraft also wrote that husbands and wives needed common interests and similar pursuits in order for affections to be true, if at all.
Moralists have unanimously agreed, that unless virtue be nursed by liberty, it will never attain due strength - and what they say of man I extend to mankind, insisting that in all cases morals must be fixed on immutable principles; and, that the being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason.
Let women share the rights and she will emulate the virtues of man...
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