Radical Women

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On Election Day in 1920, American women exercised their right to vote for the first time. It had taken nearly 100 years for activists and reformists to convince the U.S. that women were just as equal as men (Dunlap). Women, like men, deserved all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship like men did. They used to be seen as a type of property either owned by their father’s or husband’s. Women’s education focused mainly on “ladylike” accomplishments such as sewing and music. Many women around the 1800s like Jane Austen or Mary Wollstonecraft were big on the treatment of women. In fact, both of the women wrote radical stories during their time over the rights of women. Austen wrote “On Making an Agreeable Marriage” and in it, she writes to her niece and her suitor and rambles on if he is the right fit for her and to marry him for “true” love. The more radical of the two texts is, “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” by Mary Wollstonecraft because it shows the need for education, revolution in female manners, and the problem with sensibility.
In “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,” Wollstonecraft shows her passion for the education reform. Mary saw the need for co-education. She believed that boys and girls would improve if they could work together. Having girls in the class wouldn’t hurt the performance Wollstonecraft thought. She believed they needed to attend school together from the earliest age, despite gender or class, and have time to develop their bodily and mental strengths. She then goes on to explain how women “are still reckoned a frivolous sex, and ridiculed or pitied by the writers who endeavor by satire or instruction to improve them.” Education reform was particularly important for women since their lack o...

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...onal Portrait Gallery. National Portrait Gallery, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. .
Dunlap, Lanette. "The Fight for Women's Suffrage." History. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. .
Fennell, Marty. "Women's Rights." American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. .
Kellett, Hank. "Women's Rights Movement." Infoplease. Pearson Education, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. .
Moravec, Michelle. "Sensibility." The Politics of Women's Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. .

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