What Is The Role Of Women During The Enlightenment

Today in the 21st century, women in most parts of the world are blessed with wonderful opportunities such as being allowed to attend the same schools and pursue the same careers as men. However, these opportunities among others, were not always attainable to women. There were times when women were limited to the roles of wife, mother, and housekeeper. During the Enlightenment, the common individual viewed the roles of men and women separately in the fields of work and education. The common belief was that women were simply meant to keep the household and watch the children, while men were to receive a formal education and provide for the family. Despite society's limited views on the roles of women, during the Enlightenment many ladies took
it upon themselves to change those distorted views, and began hosting salons in their homes. Through these small gatherings, several women finally began to earn their own money. These salons offered an opportunity for women to think critically in work, and contribute to society in other ways from being caretakers and mothers. Salons are only one example of how women attempted to alter the common view during the Enlightenment. The writer Mary Wollstonecraft is recognized as an early feminist of this time. She is remembered for writing several novels that expressed her feminist beliefs and challenged traditional view. Wollstonecraft publicly declared that women should receive a formal education equal to those of men, and should also be capable of contributing to society in non-domestic ways. While her beliefs may have seemed far-fetched during Enlightenment times, there was a method to her madness. Wollstonecraft was convinced that educated women could strengthen society and be intellectually equivalent to their husbands. It was a dream of hers to one day see women have the confidence to strive for and achieve individual goals, and be exposed to all of the same, if not equal opportunities as men. These beliefs were developed by Wollstonecraft through her life experiences, and were expressed in her writings and actions. As a key figure of the Enlightenment era, Wollstonecraft’s fight for women’s equality in education and work not only set the precedent for early feminism, but ultimately paved the way for other feminist influencers and the strive for equality between men and women.

Mary Wollstonecraft was born in London on April 27th 1759.
Wollstonecraft’s grandfather was a successful weaver who left a substantial legacy, but Wollstonecraft’s father wasted his inheritance, and resulted in the family to obtain financial issues (Tomaselli 1). As a result, only one of the seven children in Mary’s family was given a formal education. Wollstonecraft’s brother Edward was educated and became a lawyer, and Mary envied the opportunities her brother was given simply for being a man. This was not the only instance in Wollstonecraft’s childhood where she was subject to the unfair advantages between men and women. Growing up, Mary was often physically abused by her father while attempting to protect her mother from his drunken states (“A Biography of Mary Wollstonecraft” 1). Through watching her mother struggle in a toxic relationship, Wollstonecraft became exposed to the ties of marriage early on. Her mother never had enough resources or courage to leave her abusive husband, and stayed with him until she died. Witnessing her mother’s abusive marriage convinced Wollstonecraft that all marriage was restricting and toxic. Wollstonecraft constantly declared she would never marry but remain independent in the fear that she too would be trapped in a virulent marriage. Though not formally educated, Mary was exposed to literature early on, which allowed her to expand her mind. Growing up she spent countless hours reading in her friend’s library. There, she met her lifelong best friend Fanny Blood. Fanny was skilled at several tasks such as drawing and playing the piano. She ultimately inspired Mary to “...take initiative cultivating her mind” (Powell 8). This friendship with Fanny would prove to be valuable later on in Mary’s life. When Mary turned eighteen, she left home in an attempt to escape her family's financial issues and sought out a job of her own. She would have liked to pursue a career that required thought and intelligence, but with female job
opportunities being limited at this time, she settled as a governess to a widow. Wollstonecraft did not last long in this job however, for she quickly returned to her family months later to aid her mother’s growing illness and sister’s deteriorating mental health. Once returning home, Mary noticed that her sister Eliza was also subject to an abusive relationship. Mary took her sister away from her unhappy marriage and together, they opened a school for young girls with Fanny Blood. The school was not a success. Mary struggled with finances to keep the school running, and she found that many of the girls had little to no motivation to learn. Several of the students possessed the predetermined belief that since men fulfilled the role of the educated worker, they were only being educated because they could afford it, not because they had any intention on obtaining a job and success. After Mary’s close friend Fanny Blood passed away, Mary was forced to close the school in December of 1785, only one year after opening. This difficult experience with her school encouraged Mary to publish her first work, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s Thoughts on the Education of Daughters challenges the eighteenth-century perspective towards women. The piece argues that women should be educated, and taught to display strong moral values, rather than superficial social graces. Within this piece Mary wrote:

Nothing, I am sure, calls forth the faculties so much as the being obliged to struggle with the world; and this is not a woman's province in a married state. Her sphere of action is not large, and if she is not taught to look into her own heart, how trivial are her occupations and pursuits! What little arts engross and narrow her mind! (Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787), "Matrimony", p. 100)

This line criticizes the limitations that marriage puts on a woman. It brings to mind how since women were not “taught to look into [their] own heart[s]” their goals were set minimally and many were never fully aware of their true potential. This quote also finds fault with how women often aimed low in their careers since the working role was typically possessed by the man, and the woman was left to fulfill the mindless roles of the marriage such as housekeeping. This writing piece was only the first of many influential feminist pieces from Wollstonecraft. Later in her career, she wrote her most famous piece A Vindication of the Rights of Women.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is a revolutionary piece of literature, that still plays a role in feminism today. Wollstonecraft wrote the book as a reaction to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution, published in late 1790s. Wollstonecraft’s initial response was to write A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790), a contradiction to Burke’s piece that argued in favour of parliamentary reform. Her plan was to state that religious and civil liberties were part of a man’s birthright, and corruption was caused by ignorance. This argument for men’s rights was not unique however. Thomas Paine also published his Rights of Man in 1791.Wollstonecraft therefore took it upon herself to go one step further and publish A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. For the first time, a book was published that argued for women’s rights to be the same as men’s ("Historical Context for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" 2). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is still applicable to many of the challenges women face today. This is remarkable, considering the piece was published about two-hundred years ago. In this piece, Wollstonecraft suggested an education reform that would give boys and girls not only equal, but free education. This reform basically describes the public education we have in place today, and is only a single example of how Wollstonecraft’s hypotheticals, later became a reality. Wollstonecraft also argued women should be able to enter the world of medicine and politics. This is once again relevant to our modern lives, considering the female candidate in our most recent presidential election. In addition, Wollstonecraft touched upon more personal issues regarding women, suggesting that if women are shamed for having sex before marriage, then men should be as well. Unfortunately this particular issue has not entirely been resolved; one can argue it has actually gotten worse. A particular quote in Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman singles out Enlightenment thinker Rousseau. The quote states:

Rousseau declares that a woman should never, for a moment, feel herself independent, that she should be governed by fear to exercise her natural cunning, and made a coquettish slave in order to render her a more alluring object of desire, a sweeter companion to man, whenever he chooses to relax himself. (ch. 2)

In order words, Rousseau believed that women's only strength was their ability to manipulate and deceive men, and that their only purpose in life was to look pretty and obey their husbands. Rousseau’s belief was accepted by many women, and shared by many men. Wollstonecraft was the first to publicly criticize this horrible belief among others. There are several more topics that Wollstonecraft touched upon within A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, ranging from femininity to slavery. While published over two-hundred years ago, the piece remains relevant to our lives today. Without this publication and Wollstonecraft’s audacity in publicly sharing her feminist beliefs, perhaps without A Vindication of the Rights of Woman it would have taken significantly longer to establish equality between men and women.
Reflecting on Women’s history, one can recollect that the path towards achieving equality between men and women has been a long, and difficult one. Along that path there have been several influential females including Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony, and many others. Wollstonecraft may have been just one of the many significant women along that path, but her contributions shall not be overlooked or underestimated. Her difficult childhood and exposure to the ties of marriage so early on in her life, resulted in her development of strong opinions regarding women, marriage, and gender roles. Her later experiences allowed her to expand her beliefs and encouraged her to act on them as no woman had done before. While many people see the Enlightenment as a time where men such as Isaac Newton, John Locke, and Rousseau expanded their minds and changed modern thought forever in regards to science, politics, and philosophy; the Enlightenment also marks a turning point in female equality. Through her publications, Wollstonecraft “...laid down a moral and practical basis for extending human and political rights to women” (Pettinger 13). Without this influential woman and her efforts towards achieving female equality, such a thing could never have been established.