The Feminist Philosphoy and May Wollstonecraft

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Fiercely independent and far from conventional Mary Wollstonecraft called for more equality between the sexes; she ignited the flame that would turn into the feminist movement we know today. Wollstonecraft was a key founder of feminist philosophy. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) stated her view that women should have a wider access to education, not taught to depend on their beauty. “A committed women’s liberationist cannot retire from the job, only die at it.” (Dann, 1985) Mary Wollstonecraft encompassed this perfectly.

“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves” (Wollstonecraft, 1995). Women were expected to be passive, Wollstonecraft believed women should have the right to be independent. In New Zealand’s feminist movement of the 1970’s women were lobbying for more than the right to vote which had been attained in 1893. “Yesterday’s suffragettes; today’s marionettes” (Dann, 1985). From equal pay to abortion to the founding of Women’s refuge the society of New Zealand was undergoing a revolution in its own right. Wollstonecraft’s original call for change was still being echoed during New Zealand’s feminist movement; “For years women have been enslaved, thought to be fit only for housekeeping and reproduction. It is time women made a stand for themselves” (Dann, 1985).

Just as Wollstonecraft was slandered because of her unorthodox private life, “New Zealand media has reacted to the new women’s movement by focusing on trivial, personal or sensation aspects, and had left the real issues untouched” (Dann, 1985). In Wollstonecraft’s time and in the feminist movement of the 1970’s, it was easier for people to discredit the person or movement that put forth the ideas rather than challenge th...

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Gordon, L. (2005). Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. Harper Perennial.

Huhman, H. R. (2012, June 06). Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/06/20/stem-fields-and-the-gender-gap-where-are-the-women/

Miller, E., & Halberstadt, J. (2005). Media Consumtpion, Body Image and Thin Ideals in New Zealand Men and Women. New Zealand Journal of Psychology Vol. 34, 189-195.

Smith, D. (2013, December 08). (D. Gibbs, Interviewer)

Smith, J., & Tetro, S. (2011, May 28). Danielle Hayes: Sitting Pretty. Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10728476

Todd, J. (1989). A Wollstonecraft Anthology. Polity Press/Basil Blackwell.

Wollstonecraft, M. (1995). A Vindication of the Rights of Men & A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (2 in 1). Cambridge University Press.

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