Philosophy
Tonette Sims
Nathan Poage
1301 Phil
28 November 2011
Discuss Wollstonecraft 's arguments for women 's rights. Are they persuasive? Why or why not?
Mary Wollstonecraft was born April 1759 and died 1797. She was a determined independent woman that lived in a society that generally expected women of her class to be homebodies and obedient wives. She struggles for years to earn a living at the only two jobs sufficient for single, educated women. Always self-sustaining, Mary Wollstonecraft first starts and operates a school, then works as a governess before becoming an intellectual writer. Wollstonecraft is also recognized as being a feminist. As an expression of her femininity, she was a diligent advocate of education and believed that women could successfully manage business and enter politics if men would only give them a chance. Additionally, her work marked the birth of the modern women’s movement for equal rights. Now as an outspoken advocate for the equality of the sexes, the tensions of her early life of continued to plague her throughout the first efforts of her career. One of her first breakthrough thoughts was in The Vindication of the Rights of Woman when she stressed women to start standing up for themselves in society. Wollstonecraft urges them to “acquire strength, both of mind and body” in order to conquer their rights.
Wollstonecraft opens her book with an introduction that distinctly illustrates her concerns: "After considering the historic page, and viewing the living world with anxious solicitude, the most melancholy emotions of sorrowful indignation have depressed my spirits, and I have sighed when obliged to confess, that either nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that the civilization, which has hitherto taken place in the world, has been very partial. I have turned over various books written on the subject of education, and patiently observed the conduct of parents and the management of schools; but what has
Nathan Poage
1301 Phil
28 November 2011
Discuss Wollstonecraft 's arguments for women 's rights. Are they persuasive? Why or why not?
Mary Wollstonecraft was born April 1759 and died 1797. She was a determined independent woman that lived in a society that generally expected women of her class to be homebodies and obedient wives. She struggles for years to earn a living at the only two jobs sufficient for single, educated women. Always self-sustaining, Mary Wollstonecraft first starts and operates a school, then works as a governess before becoming an intellectual writer. Wollstonecraft is also recognized as being a feminist. As an expression of her femininity, she was a diligent advocate of education and believed that women could successfully manage business and enter politics if men would only give them a chance. Additionally, her work marked the birth of the modern women’s movement for equal rights. Now as an outspoken advocate for the equality of the sexes, the tensions of her early life of continued to plague her throughout the first efforts of her career. One of her first breakthrough thoughts was in The Vindication of the Rights of Woman when she stressed women to start standing up for themselves in society. Wollstonecraft urges them to “acquire strength, both of mind and body” in order to conquer their rights.
Wollstonecraft opens her book with an introduction that distinctly illustrates her concerns: "After considering the historic page, and viewing the living world with anxious solicitude, the most melancholy emotions of sorrowful indignation have depressed my spirits, and I have sighed when obliged to confess, that either nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that the civilization, which has hitherto taken place in the world, has been very partial. I have turned over various books written on the subject of education, and patiently observed the conduct of parents and the management of schools; but what has
Cited: * Mary Wollstonecraft// A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Dover Publications Dover Thrift Edition, 1996/ * “Wikipedia.” A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. 28 Nov. 2011 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Vindication_of_the_Rights_of_Woman.html >