Summary Of A Vindication Of The Rights Of Women By Mary Wollstonecraft

During this conservative time, Mary Wollstonecraft was considered a liberal feminist of this time even though it could easily have been considered unpopular. Before there was such a thing, she was a liberal feminist and political essayist. Wollstonecraft did not first argue about gender roles in A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1972), though it is considered to be one her most known works. In Rights of Women, Wollstonecraft argues many points that helps the progression of women’s rights even in the eighteenth century. Through this work, Wollstonecraft asks that women and men be educated equally with full belief that in doing so, society will greatly improve and more advances will be made for the betterment of society and future generations. A Vindication of the Rights of Women is considered one of the first major works that fights for the futuristic term of feminism. It is considered the work that began the trailblazing social movement that continues into modern society. Wollstonecraft hoped that with the education of women that one might be able to hold political power and create political changes that better society for women as a whole even more than just education alone. While
Women would be able to better educate their children if they had their own education. Their children would be able to learn more if the mother had more to offer. Mackenzie argues that it is the woman’s “primary social duty…to raise and educate children” but Wollstonecraft points out that “if women are trained to be dependent on men, and required to base their judgements on the authority of men, then they will be incapable of raising and educating children” though it is expected of them to do so (41). Mackenzie goes on to argue that “if women are ignorant of virtue and are themselves subjected to arbitrary authority, how likely is it that they will [educate] virtue in their own children?”