A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: “Author’s Introduction”

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Education is the key to achievement and paves the way to success. In the “Author’s Introduction” of her 1792 treatise, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft states that the education of women has been “neglected” and the instruction they receive is “a false system of education” focused on trivial matters. Because women have not been given educational opportunities on a par with men, she laments that women are viewed as inferior and “a frivolous sex” who can only rise in the world through marriage (Wollstonecraft). Women and men should be treated equally and given equal opportunities: one’s ability, not one’s sex, must be the deciding force in all aspects of life.

Wollstonecraft lived during the Enlightenment (ca. 1650 – 1800) when there was a call for greater social and political equality (Fiero 293). In 1789 the lower and middle-class French citizens revolted because of the disorder and inequality in their system. Following the Revolution, the new governing Assembly established a constitution which was prefaced by a Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (303). In response, Olympe de Gourges, drew up the Declaration of the Rights of Women and Citizen, demanding that women be given the same rights as men. This was the first time in history that women demanded equal property rights, government employment, and equal educational opportunities (303). Wollstonecraft’s treatise was a response to the new French Constitution, which excluded women from all areas of public life; the report on education given by M. Talleyrand-Perigord to the French National Assembly, recommending that girls' education should be directed to more subservient activities (Wollstonecraft); and a condemnation of the philosophe, J...

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...ersity Libraries. Duke University Libraries. 10 November, 2011. .

Kingsbury, Alex. "Many Colleges Reject Women at Higher Rates Than for Men." US News & World Report. US News & World Report, 17 June 2007. 10 November, 2011. .

United States of America. U.S. Department of Commerce. U.S. Census Bureau. The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings. U.S. Department of Commerce. 11 November, 2011. .

Wollstonecraft, Mary. "Author's Introduction." Introduction. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Feminism and Women's Studies. Eserver. 19 October, 2011. .

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