Qendresa Krasniqi
Essay
Mary Wollstonecraft
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Epoka University
19 May 2014

Introduction:
Mary Wollstonecraft on the book Vindication of the Rights of Women writes for or better say demands better education and right for women by arguing on some others author writings. This topic is very important especially for women, because in her book we can see how women were prejudiced and discriminated at a specific time frame chosen by the author. She calls out to all women to be interested in education, and she calls men not to feel superior and believe women to be inferior because according to her the only reason women were prejudiced was that men saw women as weak and fragile compared to them. Most importantly, she argues that woman should not have only a domestic education and by saying that upon receiving an education, women will become more powerful. Personally, I agree on all her ideas, because i believe in women equality, especially when it comes to education, and women must be seen in the same manner as men in the society. This paper will show Wollstonecraft’s main ideas that she used in her famous book dedicated to women rights.

A short biography of Mary Wollstonecraft:
A history making woman, “mother of feminism” Mary Wollstonecraft was born on April 27th 1759 in England, in a middle-class family with an alcoholic and abusive father, and was the second child out of seven. Failures of her father and illness of her mother made her leave childhood earlier and do the role of a mother, especially for her sisters. She, together with her sister, her friend Fanny Blood created a school in Newington Green town. The school collapsed due to Fanny’s illness which leads to her death. Thus, Wollstonecraft was forced in a way to accept a short period of work as governess.Wollstonecraft believed in her sensibility and saw herself as a glory woman, thus declared herself as “the first of a new genius”. While she was working as an editorial assistant, writer and reviewer for Joseph Johnson magazine, she was growing intellectually. (Anderson) With the help intellectual circle of Johnson, her ideas developed rapidly. After her reputation was rising she realized that the problem was neither her family history nor God’s given sense of dissatisfaction, but a feedback of a social condition, in which inadequate educated and privileged men were denying education and autonomy to women. At this time she published her works, “A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790)” and “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)”, by responding to the criticism of Edmund Burke on the French Revolution, where she disputed the idea that human nature could not take too much changes of reality, whereby she experienced this Revolution. She also responded to J. J. Rousseau’s work Emile, where she argued that a girl’s education must aim for making her useful in human nature and supportive of a rational man. (Todd, 2011)

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman:
Mary Wollstonecraft published her book “Vindication of the Rights of Women” as critique of M. Talleyrand-Perigord who was Bishop of Autun, which concluded that women must receive just domestic education. It was a response to other theories of the eighteen century, to which women must not get rational education. Therefore, Wollstonecraft challenged the way woman nature was perceived by making it through a Man’s World and achieving a great position in the society. In the introduction she writes: “I have had to admit, sadly, that either nature has made a great difference between men and women or that the world is not yet anywhere near to being fully civilized” (Wollstonecraft, 1972, p. 7). Mary starts her book by recalling everyone the human rights and the duties they involve, she asks questions whose answers lead to reason, knowledge and virtue which then, lead to the truth. “So the perfection of our nature and capacity for happiness must be measured by the degree or reason, knowledge and virtue that separates the individuals and direct the laws that bind society” (Wollstonecraft, 1972, p. 12). It must be mention that in this book she opposes Rousseau when he says “man by nature is solitary animal and that society contributes to evilness”, disagreeing with the way he describes the state of nature, saying that God has placed human on earth to live in a community. Humans must use the reason to reach godlike happiness. Evil and mistakes exist because of the presence of the free will. Furthermore she says that the reasons why women are subordinated, is the lack of education, prejudice, their silliness, lack of achieving a reason, as well as a structure of government that does not provide enough power to the people. In the eyes of the society women put themselves as attractive things, as objects, thus they become ridiculous and immoral. She writes critiques toward women as well, saying that by paying too much attention to their look, it is automatically women’s fault why they are seen as sexual objects and are denied from the right to be educated, independent and free to make their own choices.
She disagrees with Rousseau’s idea that women by nature are inferior to men based on reason, independence and virtue, by arguing that even though women may not be as rational as men, it is society’s fault for making them less reasonable and denying the right to have equal opportunities with men. She also opposes Rousseau when he says women should only care about their attractiveness by making them incapable of reason, he goes on saying that equal education is improper. Man’s tyranny over women is a consequence of bad parenting, because parents teach and treat their daughters as fragile; teach them to be kind and soft, to be silent and be proud only for their beauty nothing else. “So women are to be considered either as moral beings or as so weak that they must be entirely subjected to the superiority faculties of men” (Wollstonecraft, 1972, p. 27). Education of women is good for humankind improvements and developments that’s the reason why education must be equal to both sexes. When she talks about the marriage, which to her is like friendship, she writes that women and men should have the same freedom, the mutual respect and concerns for moral must be same for both sides. To Wollstonecraft, marriage is the moment where a woman is raised in life, marriage is an act where man and woman must share the same virtue and knowledge despite the fact that men by nature are physically stronger than women. By having the same rights, opportunities and an equal education for both men and women, the intelligence and capacity of humankind would increase. Men are degraded by their richness, birth and extrinsic advantages, and thus they exercise absolute power but they lose their humanity. She makes appeal to all women, to stand-up and to make revolutions, to raise their dignity by making great changes and reforms, starting from education of their own. The only Supreme Being is God and when human beings want to acquire knowledge and virtue, they must look at God. Women who are not educated, with lack of ambitions and those who treat themselves as objects of pleasure for their husbands will soon become slaves and victims of them. Those women will be incapable to protect themselves and their children, will be soon lost and forgotten. There is no doubt that Mary’s call for revolution helped feminism to start demanding more rights for them.
Mary explains that men see women as weak and fragile human beings by recalling that neither women nor men are perfect. And women, just like men, should seek possibilities to educate themselves, seeing education not as a form of perfectionism and enlightenment but as a possibility to prepare for the life. It must be mention that, Wollstonecraft is a harsh critique of women who only seek part time happiness, who only want pleasure and sentiment to live only the present moment which leads them to an unhappy marriage and an unhappy life, calling them cruel, silly, insipid and capricious.. She continues her critique toward authors such as Rousseau, Dr. Fordyce, Dr. Gregory, Lord Chesterfield and some women, strongly believing that women are weak and soft because men have divided such differences. Women’s status in society is defected because of the insufficient education they receive. To her, females tend to be more enslaved than males, to first impressions because they are unmoved toward larger society, this difference between women and men is because of the sexual character they possess. Then she discusses about the modesty, which comes after the reason and sensibility. Modesty teaches men not to think for himself more then he should. Women and men whose mind has improved tend to be more modest. After modesty, she writes about morality, ranking and classifying distinctions. To her, moral and equality must dominate society otherwise ignorance and immorality will dominate. She also concentrates on parents’ issue, by comparing parents with communist leaders. Parents must use reason while educating and raising their children so they could win their respect. A young girl tends to take her mother’s way of thinking, seeing life, and treating herself, here it’s the fear that she won’t overcome her flaws, she will be obsessed, she will choose to settle for less than she deserves if not raised with the proper education on how to love and respect herself, and how to raise above the prejudices.
Even though she criticizes men for underestimating women, she blames her own sex for not getting the right education. She doesn't agree with women on why they read bad novels with nothing to teach them or why they desperately want to predict their future from an astrologist. she doesn't agree with the way women see and treat each other, saying that men tend to have friendship with each other while women tend to be rivals, as if they’re in an constant competition.
Wollstonecraft calls women to be educated and to make revolution, if they want to have a better life in society as mothers and wives, if not for themselves for their daughters by exercising the reason, taking part in cultural and political organizations, contributing to their society. Seeing women educated, the dignity and grace of humanity is achieved.
At the end she claims that education must be an international issue. Children must have right to be equally educated with the same opportunities and the same possibilities. Wollstonecraft requires to have a mixture of public and private education dividing the children into classes according to their ages, not according to their wealth. Saying that each school should have their uniform, so students would dress alike, rules should be same for everyone and should be applied to everyone the same.

Conclusion:
The vindication of the Rights of Women of female author Mary Wollstonecraft has brought many changes after the publication. Her ideas and demands for educating women in the same manner as men has made conscious both males and especially females to embrace the opportunity of having the chance to be educated and having the chance to have the last word for her decisions. Her ideas made women aware that they can be masters on their own. Her liberal feminist ideology has criticized famous authors such Jean Jack Rousseau or even Fordyce. Women need a feminist like Wollstonecraft to brighten their future. She calls even men to be more reasonable and not to feel superior. Nevertheless, she was not only a critique of men; she has criticized women as well by asking them not to care that much about their beauty and their dresses, not be narcissist, instead to wake up and start reading books that will help them change their position in the society. There is no doubt that her book caused a revolution. Today, I and every woman should be grateful to Mary Wollstonecraft for raising her voice, making it possible for us as women to be educated, to be treated as human beings without having double standards.
Today, I choose to marry or not, I choose to be educated or not. I can be a politician, a doctor, a lawyer, a hairdresser or whatever I am willing to be without the fear that I will be judged or even denied from the right to be whatever I think represents the best of me.

Works Cited:
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