Both Mary Wollstonecraft and Sor Juana de la Cruz are writers of the Enlightenment period, but they each approach women’s rights in a different way. While De la Druz was a Catholic nun from Mexico ad preferred to study and be alone, Wollstonecraft asserted women’s rights for all through publications directed at the masses. During the Enlightenment, people began to question old authoritative models like the Church. Our texts states, “thinkers believed inreason as a dependable guide. Both sides insisted that one should not take any assertion of truth on faith, blindly following the authority of others; instead, one should think skeptically about causes and effects, subjecting all truth-claims to logic andrational inquiry” (Puchner 92). Indeed, …show more content…
She saves her best description for last, comparing soldiers' dim politeness to women's. She describes the current state of women's analysis ability as "a kind of instinctive glance, that catches proportions, and decides with respect to manners; but fails when arguments areto be pursued below the surface, or opinions analyzed" (Wollstonecraft 136). She's basically saying that women of the time were taught a superficial set of manners and ideals, without the logic reasoning to back them up. Because of this, she submits that women are raised to not question authority and that, like soldiers, both are "taught to please, and they only live to please" (136). Therefore, Wollstonecraft points to education as the main reason women aren't excelling and demanding better treatment.De La Cruz, on the other hand, fervently blames men and society's double standards for women's struggles, even challenging who should get blamed for adultery and prostitution. In her poem "Philosophical Satire," De La Cruz claims, "You foolish and unreasoning men/who cast all blame on women,/not seeing you yourselves are cause/of the same faults you accuse:"
Wollstonecraft, Mary. “A Vindication of the Rights of Women with Structures on Political and Moral
The Declaration of Independence stands as a representation of justice, equality, and natural human rights. With it being written to liberate the American citizens from British control; allowing the citizens to live freely as they wish - as equal humans. However, there are numerous discrepancies and controversies to this document. Especially in the field of gender-equality and women 's rights. Mary Wollstonecraft, writer of A Vindication of the Rights of Women, is a forerunner of this movement. Comparing her work to the Declaration of Independence, it can be seen that Wollstonecraft 's work can be served as a critique against the masculinity put forth in the Declaration of Independence. With the declaration making numerous remarks with recognition
The need for women’s rights began back in colonial America where women were referred to as “inferior beings”. This era, though it is not particularly noted for it’s feminist movements, did hold such people as Margaret Brent, who was a wealthy holder of land in Maryland and was a strong, but unsuccessful voice in securing a place for women in the legislature of the colony. It was also a period where Quakers, and many other individuals, such as famous American patriot, Thomas Paine supported the rights of women, but at the time it was not enough to make a significant difference and it wasn’t until the 19th century that women would get the real chance to make a difference.
A change in feminism is shown between Wollstonecraft’s essay and Young’s essay. As women first demanded rights, they were coming out of complete dependence on men. Wollstonecraft and other activists fought for the basic right of education for women. As women gained liberty, they began to oppress themselves in the Third Wave of feminism. Wollstonecraft focused on the basic rights of women in her paper, saying “They must be permitted to turn to the fountain of light, and not forced to shape their course by the twinkling of a mere satellite” (Wollstonecraft 5). Here Wollstonecraft is saying that women need to be given the opportunity to get a good education, not just be taught by what their husbands tell them, so they could be their better selves.
Mary Wollstonecraft was as revolutionary in her writings as Thomas Paine. They were both very effective writers and conveyed the messages of their ideas quite well even though both only had only the most basic education. Wollstonecraft was a woman writing about women's rights at a time when these rights were simply non-existent and this made her different from Paine because she was breaking new ground, thus making her unique. Throughout her lifetime, Wollstonecraft wrote about the misconception that women did not need an education, but were only meant to be submissive to man. Women were treated like a decoration that had no real function except to amuse and beguile. Wollstonecraft was the true leader in women's rights, advocating a partnership in relationships and marriage rather than a dictatorship. She was firm in her conviction that education would give women the ability to take a more active role in life itself.
In the years of the late 1700’s and early 1800’s women’s rights were unheard of. Women didn’t get a higher education like the men did. They would mostly learn about etiquette and how to cook and clean. The father of the daughter would choose who she would marry, it would always be based on money, and family tithes. Women were treated as property and she was owned by her father and mother tells she was wedded, and then her husband would own her. But in theses years is when women started to more or less rebel and come out with new and radical ideas. In the article by Jone Lewis she states, “Mary Wollstonecraft has been called the "first feminist" or "mother of feminism." Two authors we looked at were Jane Austen and Mary Wollstonecraft, the more radical of the authors was Wollstonecraft.
Vindication of the Rights for Women by Mary Wollstonecraft was published in 1792, during the French Revolution. Wollstonecraft preached that intellect will always govern to persuade women not to endeavor to acquire knowledge but convince them that the soft phrases, acceptability of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are most preferred. By intellect, I mean the men because they were the ones that were allowed to get an education therefore allowing them to become intellectual. Wollstonecraft cleverly does not try to prove her point through protests or accusations, but argue that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason. She believed it was unfair for women to be treated differently and passionately wanted to make a change. That it was time to let go of feelings and begin the thought process behind the rationality of the women’s predicament. Men felt that while they would get an education an...
Eighteenth century writer and mother of female liberalism, Mary Wollstonecraft refutes this supposedly natural state of man being superior to woman in her treatise, "A Vindication of The Rights of Woman":
Mary Wollstonecraft: Vindication of the Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is a revolutionary early feminist test asking for reform of women’s education. Written and published in 1792 in response to Talleyrand’s 1791 treatise on public education. Wollstonecraft reflecting and arguing against Talleyrand’s report feeling that it glaring neglected the intellectual and rational education of women by suggesting an education suited for domesticity and continuing the misogynistic view women were not capable of rational, intellectual, or scientific thought.
Women today are still viewed as naturally inferior to men, despite the considerable progress done to close this gap. Females have made a huge difference in their standing from 200 years ago. Whether anyone is sexist or not, females have made considerable progress from where they started, but there is still a long journey ahead. Mary Wollstonecraft was an advocate of women 's rights, a philosopher, and an English writer. One of Wollstonecraft’s best works was “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” (1792). In her writing, she talks about how both men and women should be treated equal, and reasoning could create a social order between the two. In chapter nine of this novel, called “Of the Pernicious Effects Which Arise from the Unnatural Distinctions Established in Society,”
De la Cruz does not let women out of the blame. However, she does not focus the blame on them voicing, “Who has embraced the greater blame in passion? She who, solicited, falls, or he who, fallen, pleads?” She poses this question to make you ponder who is really at fault. As De la Cruz points out, the suppression of women is not all the men’s fault, but neither is it all the woman’s fault, making it hard to see who is more at fault. De la Cruz poses the ultimatum of, “Who is more to blame though either should do wrong? She who sins for pay or he who pays to sin?” This question is possibly one of the most important quotes in the whole poem as the quote really shows all sides take fault. If both the male mentality and female mentality are at fault, then the basis, human nature, must be at
She brings up many valid points that these actions of the women which men so often criticized were a direct effect of what the men wanted them to be. She exposed these men as hypocrites- insulting women for their attire and attitude, but never pausing to realize that this was exactly what they wanted in a woman. This supports the comment I made about women of the time being puppets- and rightfully so- because if they did not conform to the desires of men, they would have no
Mary Wollstonecraft was a self-educated, radical philosopher who wrote about liberation, and empowering women. She had a powerful voice on her views of the rights of women to get good education and career opportunities. She pioneered the debate for women’s rights inspiring many of the 19th and the 20th century’s writers and philosophers to fight for women’s rights, as well. She did not only criticize men for not giving women their rights, she also put a blame on women for being voiceless and subservient. Her life and, the surrounding events of her time, accompanied by the strong will of her, had surely affected the way she chose to live her life, and to form her own philosophies.
As a cultural movement, Romanticism “revolted against academic convention, and authority,” and the “limitations to freedom” that Romantics saw in the Enlightenment period (210). “Among European intellectuals, the belief in the reforming powers of reason became the basis for a progressive view of human history” (144). Enlightenment figures Antione Nicolas de Condorcet and Mary Wollstonecraft advocated for one such progressive cause, the rights of women. Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman put the idea of women’s rights into the minds of people during the Enlightenment period. As a merely progressive view, women did not obtain rights such as voting until the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Enlightenment writers like Jonathan Swift and Voltaire, used satire to “[draw] attention to the vast contradictions between morals and manners, intentions and actions, and, more generally Enlightenment aspirations and contemporary degradation” (158).
The discourse on the status of women and their struggle for liberation in the society and in literature, however, is not new. Women’s liberation movement, popularly known as ‘feminist’ movement, started with an aim of establishing and defending equal rights and opportunities for women. Until late eighteenth century, women, whether of Europe or non-Europe, did not raise any voice to claim their rights in the society. With the publication of the British feminist writer and advocate of women’s rights, Mary Wollstonecraft’s revolutionary work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), there emerged a women’s...