Mary Wollstonecraft Analysis

In this paper, I will explain and analyze Mary Wollstonecraft’s opinions and writings on gender inequality. Primarily, I will discuss her ideas on the current role of women in her society and the status that she feels they should be able to elevate themselves to. She also discusses the perception of women in her society, and I will show how she relates this perception to the perpetuation of gender injustice. Furthermore, I will evaluate the legitimacy and significance of the claim that societal norms dictate a woman’s role in the world as a mother and wife. She makes this point in her publication “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects”. Wollstonecraft also references how the writings of previous

She attempts to make cases for the two sexes to not be as fundamentally different as other philosophers and societal practices would have you believe. At the time that she wrote “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, there was an incredibly prevalent notion that men were born to be naturally stronger, smarter, and greater providers in society while women were born to be more innocent and beautiful being whose role was as the attractive companion of a man and serving his needs. While it is clear from Wollstonecraft’s writings that most of society is conspiring to keep women down, she points out that the women are not actively seeking to improve their situation either. She indicates that many women are willing to sacrifice their health, happiness and virtue for the life that they can be given with little exertion. That is, they submit to the pressure on them to make themselves seem weak and appeal to the desires of men in order to reap the benefits of the life that is given to

However, she certainly believes that the main role of women is to be a good mother, and her writings don’t really address women in the unmarried or single context. She argued for women’s education so that they could be better mothers and teach their children important lessons, as well as set an example for how to be happily married and be a good mother. Wollstonecraft’s ideas were not incredibly radical, and perhaps that is why they were so influential. She didn’t claim that women were superior to men and attempt to make an incredibly drastic leap forward in the social standing of women, but rather suggested that women should be viewed as closer to equals with men rather than subservient