Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication Of The Rights Of Women Analysis

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman laid her arguments for the rights of education for women in the 18th Century, portraying the world of women in her time and how they were treated by the world. Since the time of Mary Wollstonecraft to the present day, women are still struggling in many parts of the world for the right for education. Wollstonecraft argued that education can reform the life of women, shape her home and world. Education has changed the life of women from being dependent to independent but the culture and tradition, and the mindset of people still restraints women from their right to education while subjecting them to inferior sex, domestic violence and gender discrimination.

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In the society like Pakistan and India, where dowry system is very prominent, they see their daughter as burden and even the girls think that early marriage will lower the dowry and have better life to their families (Dayal, 2015). This kind of mindset confined to preserve culture and tradition, restrict girls from their right to education. In India and in many countries, it is believed that women only leave the house of their parents when they get married to the men whom they refer as husband. The mindset of people living in that kind of society is that no matter how educated women are, they will have to remain as wife under her husband, following their culture and families value. This not only restricts women to enroll in education but also restricts women who are pursuing their higher education like MBA (Sheikh, 2007). Another kind of mindset in the people is the superior and inferior complex where male is superior to his opposite sex. For an instance, Pakistani Society is a male-dominated society where women are taught from a very early age to be tolerance and acceptance under the domination of their opposite sex (Ovais, 2014). This kind of mindset, no matter how educated they are, it is passed down from generation which can be hard to erase or
These cultural and traditional values of community restrict the mindset of every individual to think against it. The girls in the society grow by observing and witness their mothers going through same treatment of domestic violence and unknowingly adapt to that kind of system and expect the same fate for themselves (Ovais, 2014). Women even after being highly educated, they will still be bonded by their husbands, cultures and social norms. Malala Yousafzai celebrated her 18th birthday with opening of the Malala Fund’s “Malala Yousafzai All-Girls School” near the Syrian border to provide quality secondary education to girls (Malala Fund, 2015). This shows that women are still fighting around the world for their rights to education. Even today, Wollstonecraft’s argument for right to education for women is relevant as women are still fighting for their equal stand with men though education cannot bring the changes in the society and mindset till they shape it