Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

I. Biographical Background • Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) • The Vindication was published in 1792 • She opened a school, with her two sisters near London • School goes bankrupt within a year

I. Biographical Background • In 1786, published her first work: Thoughts on the Education of Daughters based on her experience with the school. • In debt, she heads to Ireland and works as a governess to an artistocratic family (1786-1787) • She’s dismissed, returns to England and takes up the traditional female jobs -- needlework, governess, teaching

I. Biographical Background • Decides to take up writing, and produces a novel -- Mary, a Fiction published in 1788. • Through her publisher she hooks up with a circle of leading radicals of the day -- Thomas Paine, William Godwin, Henry Fuseli, William Blake, • In 1792, publishes the Vindication

I. Biographical Background • In December 1792, she heads to Paris (during the revolution mind you) and starts work on Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution (1794) • Meets Gilbert Imlay, an American adventurer and entrepeneur, they marry and have a daughter (Fanny; in 1794)

I. Biographical Background • In 1795 the couple returns to England • The marriage hits the skids (largely due to Imlay’s infidelities). She attempts suicide • Embarks on tour of Scandinavia with her daughter and a maid • Trip becomes the basis of another book: Letters Written during a Short Residence in Denmark, Norway and Sweden

I. Biographical Background • Returns to England, attempts suicide again • Strikes up a relationship with William Godwin • Begins working on a second novel -- The Wrongs of Woman; or, Maria • And, pregnant with her second child, she marries Godwin (caused quite a scandal at the time)

I. Biographical Background • Gives birth to her second daughter -- Mary • 11 days later she dies from a fever contracted during childbirth • Mary Godwin eventually becomes Mary Shelley • And is probably known to you folks as the author of Frankenstein

II. Woman in the World “In the government of the physical world it is observable that the female in point of strength is, in general, inferior to the male. This is the law of nature; and it does not appear to be suspended or abrogated in favor of woman.” -- Introduction Vindication of the Rights of Woman

II. Woman in the World “...there is little reason to fear that women will acquire too much courage or fortitude; for their apparent inferiority with respect to bodily strength, must render them, in some degree, dependent on men in the various relations of life; but why should it be increased by prejudices that give a sex to virtue, and confound simple truths with sensual reveries? (Introduction)

II. Woman in the World • But then does that imply that rather than a “human” nature we have gender specific natures? • In other words, do we have 2 human natures -- one male, one female?

II. Woman in the World “I wish to sum up what I have said in a few words, for I here throw down my gauntlet, and deny the existence of sexual virtues, not excepting modesty. For man and woman, truth, if I understand the meaning of the word, must be the same...

II. Place of Woman in the World “yet the fanciful female character, so prettily drawn by poets and novelists, demanding the sacrifice of truth and sincerity, virtue becomes a relative idea, having no other foundation than utility, and of that utility men pretend arbitrarily to judge, shaping it to their own convenience.”

II. Woman in the World “Women, I allow, may have different duties to fulfill; but they are human duties, and the principles that should regulate the discharge of them, I sturdily maintain, must be the same”

II. Woman in the World • And should that natural inferiority in strength translate into broader social and political inferiority? • What is the source of the inferior status of women in society?

II. Woman in the World “Nature, or, to speak with strict propriety, God, has made all things right; but man has sought him out many inventions to mar the work.”

II. Place of Woman in the World • For Wollstonecraft, building on Rousseau, the problem is not in nature but in the artificial relations we create -- or more accurately -- men create and women endure.

II. Woman in the World • “It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meanness, cares, and sorrows, into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion, that they were created rather to feel than reason, and that all the power they obtain must be obtained by their charms and weakness...”

II. Woman in the World • In other words, “prevailing opinion” or the ways in which we choose to organize our social relations dictates the treatment of women -- and the way in which women see themselves in the society.

II. Place of Woman in the World • But what’s to be gained by women’s liberation and how do we secure it?

III. Women and Politics • “Would men but generously snap [off] our chains, and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers-- in a word, better citizens...”

III. Women and Politics “We should then 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...”

III. Women and Politics • But how do we achieve this? • Given the source of the inequality, what is the solution to establishing equality?

III. Women and Politics • Education!

III. Women and Politics “I follow truth, and, still adhereing to my first position, I will allow that bodily strength seems to give man a natural superiority over woman...

III. Women and Politics “But I still insist, that not only the virtue, but the knowledge of the two sexes should be the same in nature, if not in degree, and that women, considered not only as moral, but rational creatures, ought to endeavour to acquire human virtues (or perfections) by the same means as men, instead of being educated like a fanciful kind of half being...” [emphasis in original]

III. Women and Politics • In other words, we need to educate our women the same way we educate our men -- developing the innate rational abilities of the sex

Mary Wollstonecraft